THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
july 1922
volume 8 - number 7
The George Washington
Masonic National Memorial
BY BRO. LOUIS A. WATRES, P.G.M., PA., PRESIDENT, THE GEORGE
WASHlNGTON MASONIC NATIONAL MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION
TWELVE YEARS ago on
the 22nd of February prominent Masons from several of our Grand Jurisdictions
gathered at Alexandria, Virginia, to discuss the feasibility of erecting a
fitting Memorial to Washington, the Mason. As they met in the historical lodge
room of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, the sacred environment and the
hallowed memories of him who presided over the lodge while he was Chief
Magistrate fired them anew with the spirit of Masonry. Though fully conscious of
the fact that the history of Washington, the Mason, is a saered heritage of the
Republic, they strongly felt, as all Freemasons truly feel, that Washington's
connection with Masonry and the inspiration he gave to the Fraternity are
especially dear to the brethren. Remembering the invaluable services rendered by
Washington to his country, and that to him and those Masons who were closely
associated with him was due the fact that the fundamentals of Freemasonry were
made a part of the basic law of our land, they resolved to erect at Alexandria a
memorial which should reflect the gratitude of the Masons of the United States
to him in whose memory it should stand in the coming years.
To carry out this high
purpose, the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association was formed.
That distinguished Mason, Brother Thomas J. Shryock, of Maryland, was elected
President and plans were formulated under which the work was to proceed.
In this connection it
is proper to say that ever since its inception one of the most inspiring minds
in this great movement has been that of Brother Charles H. Callahan, of
Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22. He is the author of that splendid volume
entitled "Washington, the Man and the Mason." The data assembled by Brother
Callahan and his fascinating was of presenting the facts relating to Washington,
the Mason, have been and are of great assistance toward the consummation of our
movement.
The brethren of
Alexandria generously donated for the Memorial a little over two acres of land
on Shooter's Hill on the commanding
Arlington Ridge, and the Association has since acquired about twenty-nine acres,
so that now the site contains approximately thirty-two acres. The National
Cemetery at Arling ton is also located on the beautiful Arlington Ridge.
Each year since that
first meeting the Association has assembled on the 22nd of February, and each
year has seen marked progress in the movement.
In 1917 the
Association resolved to broaden its organization and to commit the Masons of the
United States to "the erection of a Temple costing not less than $500,000 with
an endowment fund of $250,000.” As the importance of our great movement has
developed, however, it has been resolved to make our objective as many dollars
as there are Masons in the United States, approximately 2,500,000, and to
arrange for every Grand Jurisdiction to fill its quota, which is as many dollars
as there are brethren in the respecting jurisdictions.
At our convention in
February we had paid in, in cash, $708,223.31, of which $577,100 was invested in
United States Govermnent securities; the balance to be thus invested and cash
retained sufficient to pay for the work for which contracts are now about to be
let.
A number of the Grand
Jurisdictions have already gone over the top. Massachusetts, with 92,000 Masons,
has paid in, in cash, over $110,000, and the Grand Lodge has in addition thereto
agreed to pay $5,000 when called upon. New Hampshire is one hundred per cent.;
so is Connecticut. Rhode Island is over the top. So is the District of Columbia.
Maryland and Delaware are over one hundred per cent. Pennsylvania has paid in
$93,500. The States of Washington, Arizona and Utah are over the top. Illinois
has paid in to our Treasurer $49,000, and there is a very substantial sum now in
the hands of its Grand Treasurer. New Jersey has paid in nearly $50,000. Some of
the Grand Jurisdictions are just getting at work, among them New York under the
chairmanship of Past Grand Master Judge William S. Farmer. Iowa, Minnesota,
Michigan, the Dakotas, Missouri, Texas, and many others of the Western and
Southern States are enthusiastic in the movement; and there is no possible doubt
that the objective will be reached and that the money will be available as
required.
One year ago the Board
of Directors was authorized to employ an architect and to submit to our Twelfth
Annual Convention plans and a model of the proposed Memorial Temple. Helmle and
Corbett, of New York, were engaged as Architects, and S. Eugene Osgood, 33d, of
Grand Rapids, Michigan, was employed as Consulting Architect. It is also
proposed to engage Olmsted Brothers, of Brookline, Mass., as Landscape
Architects.
The plans and model
prepared by the architects were approved by the Executive Committee and the
Board of Directors and submitted to the Association on the 22nd of February
last.
On that occasion the
firm of architects was represented by Harvey Wiley Corbett. He is a graduate
engineer of the University of California, and a graduate architect, Ecole des
Beaux Arts, Paris. He received a government diploma and is seven times a
Medalist. The Nero York Chapter, American Institute of Architects, presented him
with a Medal of Honor. He built the Springfield Municipal Group at Springfield,
Mass.; the Bush Terminal Office Building, New York; the Bush Buildings, of
London, England; and other notable structures.
S. Eugene Osgood,
representing the firm of Osgood and Osgood, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a 33d
Mason, Past Master of his Blue Lodge, and Past Commander-in-Chief of his
Consistory. During the last fifteen years he has designed many notable Masonic
Temples. He received his architectural training at Cornell University, and is
the junior member of a firm that has been in continuous architectural practice
for over forty-five years.
In presenting the
model and plans to our Association for approval, Brother Corbett gave us in a
most interesting manner a vision of the Memorial. In opening his remarks he
said:
"The George Washington
Masonic National Memorial is primarily a memorial to George Washington, the Man
and the Mason. Its form is inspired by the great towers built in the ancient
days of Greece and Rome to mark the entrances to their harbors and from whose
summits permanent burning flares that could be seen for miles at sea, guided the
mariner on his way. The great tower of the Memorial represents to the world at
large the guiding spirit of Washington in statesmanship, and his revered
precepts which for all time will set an example by which the Ship of State may
direct its course.”
Brother Corbett, in
continuing his description, did not undertake to go into the details of the
plans, but gave us an excellent conception of what the work is to include.
The Temple will be in
plain view of Washington, D. C., and will be passed by all who travel between
the City of Washington and George Washington's old home at Mt. Vernon. The
edifice will be surrounded by artistic landscaping, and will be reached by broad
walks and stone steps ascending through seven terraces. From the topmost
colonnaded tower of the Memorial, visitors will view for many miles around the
region in which the immortal Washington passed a great part of his life.
The architecture is
classic. The main masses of the building comprise a base in which will be
located the great George Washington Memorial Hall and various Masonic rooms, and
above this base will rise a form of tower.
The dimension of the
edifice over all will be one hundred and sixty feet in width, by two hundred and
thirty feet in depth, exclusive of its steps, terraces, and approaches. Its
height to the summit of the covered observation platform crowning the tower will
be two hundred feet.
One of the most
stately features will be a great atrium, seventy feet wide, by one hundred feet
deep, which will form the Memorial Hall, and in which it is now proposed to set
a statue of George Washington. This great hall will be sixty-four feet in
height, rising by a clerestory above the surrounding portion of the building. It
will be flanked by great Ionic columns, forty feet high, and surrounded by a
number of rooms devoted to Masonic interests, above the roof of which clerestory
lights admit the light of day.
The entrance of the
building will be expressed in a six-columned portico of pure Greek Doric design,
forming an interesting contrast to the plain unbroken side walls of the Masonic
rooms. The Memorial Hall will be reached through the portico by gradual steps.
Rising above the great
Memorial Hall, and forming the second story of the tower, will be a museum room
to house the many memorabilia of George Washington and his time, as well as
interesting relics connected with Washington's service as Master of Alexandria,
Washington Lodge. This museum will be fifty by seventy-five feet, with lofty
ceiling and fine light. It will be reached both by stairs and elevators.
There will be a third
level above the museum. Above it will be a covered observation platform. The
three levels will be screened by stately colonnades.
These four elements
will form the great tower, inspired by the classic towers which, as Mr. Corbett
has stated, guided the mariners of old.
The broad steps and
grassy terraces, adorned with shrubs, will add to the imposing and beautiful
effect of the Temple.
The plans and model
were unanimously approved by the Association, after which the President offered
the following recommendation:
“That working
drawings, specifications, etc., be completed as soon as possible, so that total
estimates of cost can be procured; that contracts for the excavation and
foundation units be awarded, with the end in view of laying the cornerstone some
time in early fall; that further contracts be awarded from that point on up to
and including the completion of the work, but with the distinct understanding
that no contract, under any circumstances, shall be let until the money is
actually in hand to meet it."
This recommendation
was adopted by the Association.
Following the
convention's adjournment the Board of Directors authorized the working plans to
be proceeded with, and the work of excavating and the building of the foundation
walls will be begun at a very early day.
It is hoped that the
cornerstone may be laid on the 4th of November next, which will be the 170th
anniversary of the entry of Brother Washington into Masonry. That should be made
a grand, gala day for Masons from all over the United States. It should be made
such an affair as will impress the brethren with the deep meaning of the
important work we have on hand, and broad enough in scope to include not only
the Grand Lodges of the forty-nine Jurisdictions, but all the Bodies affiliated
therewith.
The lasting value of
this Memorial building can not be measured by money. It will do much more
thanhouse and preserve the priceless relics of Washington's lodge. It will be a
center and rallying-point for Masons not only in our own country, but for
members of the Fraternity in every land, and it will cement and strengthen
Freemasonry. This great Memorial will serve to teach the power that inheres in a
closer co-ordination of fraternal energy and will promote the unity of purpose
which is so much to be desired.
----o----
THE MISSION OF MASONRY
BY BRO. OWEN SCOTT, GRAND SECRETARY, ILLINOIS
In the midst of our researches into the technical problems
of Masonic history and cognate matters it is wise now and then to go aside into
a place of vision in order to see Freemasonry as a whole, and in the spirit,
lest we forget the great aims and ideals in the service of which we are all
laboring. What could be better for such a purpose than the following? Its
author is among the workers in the forefront of one of our most powerful Grand
Jurisdictions. He needs no introduction.
"For the structure which we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our todays and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen.
Make the house where God may dwell
Beautiful, entire, and clean."
THE INSTITUTION of Freemasonry is the legacy of the ages
gone. What began with the organization of a band of builders, like the stone cut
out of the mountain, has grown until it fills the whole earth. Where civilized
man abides and opens the great light of truth and beauty, there stands Masonry
like the monarch of the woods, immortal and invincible. Unlike the great tree,
its foes come not from without, but from within.
The destruction of the creature of our speculative art
impends only when defective materials have entered into its composition. Our
building is made of living stones and is eternal in the heavens.
In Freemasonry men are the artisans and the end is the
building of manly character. It has ever been the aim to build wisely and
well. We seek the nearest perfect materials. We go into the quarries of
everyday life and select the living stones offered, rough ashlars though they
be. If moved by proper motives or, if standing upon firm foundations, the unfit
are by th ballot cast out into the rubbish. Do you say that this is ideal and
that through over anxiety to be big and rich improper materials are put into our
edifice? True, but that does not destroy the value of the ideal. The lives of
institutions, no less than those of men, are shaped and colored by their
visions. The key to noble doing is to see clearly and then to act in obedience
to this highest vision.
The sculptor at work on a block of stone, appear to the
passer-by to be doing a purely mechanical act. The observer sees but the chisel,
the mallet, and the marble. In the sculptor's brain is a presence we can not
see. It is the ideal form to be wrought out by his hand. His vision makes him
an artist; without it, he becomes merely a stone cutter.
So we are fashioned by our ideals. Only as thes are true
and beautiful can the life become noble an truly great.
Freemasonry is an institution of high ideals an lofty
standards for human living. That all do not reach these, does not diminish the
power for good. The names of the mercenary and the ignoble blur our rolls of
membership. Unworthy men prostitute the symbols of the craft to base and
unworthy ends. Would we contribute most to build up our great fraternity? Then
we should regard fitness above fame and worth above wealth. If Masonry has a
mission, an aim, it must not content itself with merely a beautiful ritual,
faultlessly rendered. If the exalted teachings of the Craft are to end with
dramatic and spectacular exhibitions in lodge, there is little room or use for
our fraternity in the affairs of men.
The first aim, therefore, is to uplift the individual
life. Each man who bows at our altar and assumes the solemn obligations placed
upon him should rise with clearer purpose and loftier aim. If he can but
realize that as a Master Mason he has had given him the plans and specifications
drawn by the Supreme Architect of the Universe for the erection of the sublime
structure of his own character, he will have caught the real spirit and aim of
Masonry.
On the contrary, if merely moved by desire to improve his
business, to wear a Masonic charm or to be able to start in a mad chase for the
"higher degrees," the newly made Mason has been spoiled in the making. To be a
real Mason is to be a better man in every relation of life. A more loyal,
loving, and considerate husband; a more devoted and indulgent father; a better
citizen; a truer friend - are a few of the fruits to be gathered from the
Masonic orchard. Many are so intent upon selfish achievements that these are
little esteemed.
The first and greatest aim of Masonry is toward a loftier
individual manhood, a purer womanhood, and a more tender and promising
childhood. That Masons are builders can be seen by the name. While the
operative craftsman uses perishable brick or stone and cements it into one
common mass, the speculative workman uses living stones, which when propery
united with the cement of brotherly love and affection, constitutes an edifice
eternal in the heavens.
By teaching men the doctrines of temperance, fortitude,
prudence and justice, together with the many other lessens drawn from, and daily
applicable to the activities of life, deep foundations are laid upon which
loftiest character must stand. When brotherly love, relief, and truth really
enter into the fiber of a man's being, there is little room for the selfish and
the debased. His instincts and his aspirations are toward the uplift that comes
from a joyful service to mankind. That I am my brother's keeper is demonstrated
in every avenue of life whether I am ready to concede it or not. He who
achieves fortune, fame, or power over the crushed form of his fellow has made a
Mephisto bargain and will render his grievous service in the Inferno of his own
creation. Service and sacrifice are the crucible in which the base metals of
greed, avarice, and selfishness are left as the dross of life. If thy brother
would have thee go with him one mile, that is thy duty. When to this is added
gladly, a second mile, that is a blessed privilege. Masonry puts into a man's
breast the sweet service of the second mile.
In everyday life the man who renders the scantest service
to complete his obligations, will find his burden onerous and distasteful. If
in the employ of another, his tenure will hang by a slender thread. If the
force is to be reduced, he will be first to go. On the other hand, if one is
concerned more in doing excellent work than in merely putting in a specified
number of hours each day, his promotions will follow one after the other
unsolicited. The one who willingly and regularly does more than he is paid for
and who seeks to do those things which his employer prefers not to do himself
will be indispensable and secure in his position. Our eight hours for
refreshment and sleep are that we may have and retain sufficient strength of
body and mind to follow our usual vocations with vigor and success. Both these
are the basis for our worship of God through relief of our worthy, distressed
brother.
Masonry's mission, therefore, to the individual is to
uplift his character and establish a nobler manhood.
To the aggregate of individuals, constituting the social
state, Masonry has a message of vast importance. Civilization has ever had as a
companion, our great fraternity. Whether the one or the other is the cause or
effect cannot easily be determined. The warp cannot say to the woof of a
fabric, "I have no need of thee." Each is so intermingled with the other that
one cannot be injured without weakening the whole. So where the great light of
Masonry and the world - the Bible - has gone, there is civilization and there is
also Freemasonry. Without God's revelation to man in the Book of books, there
has been and there can be little progress toward ethical standards.
Masonry has not been concerned with the dogmas of theology
and the factional feuds of rival sects. The church, organized religious thought
and activity, stands supreme. To this we reverently bow, modestly claiming the
privilege of casting out the devils of human need in the name of the Master of
men.
The product of Judaism and Christianity, the Holy
Scriptures, is the great light of Masonry. A belief in God and his Book is
fundamental. Hence no atheist can become or remain a Mason and be honest. When
he ceases to rely upon God as the Supreme Architect of the Universe, he owes it
to himself and to the Craft to go out from us because he is not of us.
Thus founded on the eternal truth of the revealed word and
leanang from this our duties to God and man, we, as Masons, are willing that the
various schools of religious thought should settle the disputes of theology to
their own liking. On such a foundation members of all churches, whether Jew or
Christian, come together and work as craftsmen of character without discord or
difference. Harmony is the strength of all institutions and especially of
Freemasonry.
In times past the mistaken notion existed, that in some way
Masonry was an antagonist of the church. Masons themselves may have been to
some extent responsible for this error. In their enthusiasm for the lodge they
were betrayed into saying some things regarding the relations of the fraternity
and the church of the living God, not justified by the teachings of the Craft.
In these days there is a better understanding, so much so that a large
proportion of the clergy and the laity of most religious denominations deem it
an honor to wear, the white apron, the emblem of innocence and the badge of a
Mason.
Masonry's Mission in the state is one of peace and
fidelity. Good citizenship can only be fostered by a society whose members are
taught lessons of obedience to law.
Freemasonry is the first law and order league in the world.
From the minutest details in ritual all the way up through its ethical teachings
and wonderful philosophy of human action it stands immovable for order. In no
human institution is greater emphasis placed upon the ancient customs and usages
than in the acient Craft. Even to such an extent has this gone that some look
upon this conservatism as partaking somewhat of fogyism and fossilism. The
landamrks are our common law. This charter of liberties may sometimes be in
some doubt in its application and re-adjustment to changed conditions of modern
times.
It is conceded that it is not in the power of a man or a
body of men to make innovations in the body of Masonry. In this age of
organization in all its scope, many societies, patterned more or less after this
ancient instituton have sprung up. Many of these mixing fraternity and the
business of insuring against sickness and death have led some of those, less
thoughtful, upon dangerous ground.
Some lodges and many brethren can see no reason why Masonry
should not leave its impregnable fortress of pure fraternity to enter into
competition with societies which occupy a different place and are organized for
distinctly different, yet useful, purposes. Through all this Masonry has stood
like the rock of Gibraltar against the beatings of the ocean of modern orders.
So thoroughly have the laws and customs evolved through the ages been adhered to
that our Royal Craft stands today greater and better than in any age since its
foundation. Every Mason whether in humble or exadted station in life learns and
practices lessons of equality.
The President of the United States sits as a loyal and
faithful member of his lodge. Presidents, judges, senators, congressmen,
governors they may be when in the world, but in the lodge they are Masons and
meet upon the level, act by the plumb, and part upon the square with men of all
places and conditions.
Farmers, mechanics, teaehers, ministers, and those in
professional or other vocations of life form a society of friends and brothers
among whom no contention should ever exist, except that noble contention, or
rather emulation of who best can work and best agree. Standing as it does upon
such foundations, the equality of merit and thorough obedience to law, it is
easy to perceive how profoundly Freemasonry contributes to good government.
Our republic in fact is built upon precisely this basis.
All men are equal before the law of the land and must obey it. Social
distinctions may exist by reason of wealth or station. Society may be divided
into clans and classes, but by the genius of our republican institutions, all
men are created equal. Opportunity opens the doors of success to those able and
worthy to enter. The ignoble and the indolent and the shiftless may rail at
their want of luck, but their failure is from within not from without. Masonry
regards no man for his worldly wealth or honors. Worth of the man is its only
concern. Being moved by these principles it cannot fail to be a powerful factor
in the state. Universal peace is largely in the keeping of such agencies as our
great brotherhood. All over the world men come together as friends and
brothers. Discord is frowned upon peace is encouraged. The vast army marching
under Freemasonry's banner of "peace on earth good will toward men" must move
mightily in the direction of universal amity and concord.
Peaceable settlement of international difficulties is
rapidly coming. The great Hague tribunal may have falled to avert the war
between Russia and Japan, but its mighty voice has penetrated to the ends of the
earth commanding universal peace. Silent but potent means are gradually wearing
the rocks of bloodshed and strife away. In this great movement toward
millennial peace, Masonry is a willing worker. She says to those battling for
conquest or for glory or for power:
If I were a voice, a convincing voice,
I'd be borne on the restless wind,
And wherever I saw warring nations torn,
I'd creep to the hearts full of spite and scorn,
With love's own chain to bind," and tell them to be free.
Our fraternity's mission in the state is distinctly for
good citizenship and for universal peace.
The voice of Masonry not only appeals to the individual
life in the upbuilding of character; to the man's religious thought in the
broadest toleration and yet with greatest emphasis; to the state in sustaining
law and order; but it recognizes as one of its special fields of missionary
endeavor the relief of want and woe and suffering. It looks upon the worthy
distressed brother, his widow and orphan as its chief concern. Our fellow man
is our brother. Though we may be of another race or creed we are yet taught
that our charity is universal.
It may be the Jew, robbed, wounded, half dead by the
Jericho roadside, yet the Samaritan, despised and shunned, stoops to bind up the
wounds and ministers to the wants of his enemy in distress. This is the spirit
ot Freemasonry. With Abou Ben Adhem we teach that those who would stand highest
in love to God must prove their claims by practical love to man. In almost
every Grand Jurisdiction in our great country in some practical, effective form
provision is made for aged and indigent Masons, their wives, their widows, and
helpless orphans. The particular methods adopted to meet the exigencies in
various states differ according as one theory or another may have gained sway.
In all cases, however, there is absolute unity in the willingness to provide for
the aged brother and his dependents when the storm and stress of life have
come. In our state with its vast fraternal army crossing the 200,000 mark,
Masonry is marching with no faltering step toward its highest achievement. In
the ranks there may be honest difference of opinion concerning methods, but when
our commander speaks we all gladly obey. Our Grand Lodge, composed as it is, of
the picked fruit of Illinois' superb manhood, is invincible and infallible.
The aggregate wisdom of the Craft as shown in the actions
of this Grand Body can safely be depended upon to settle aright all questions
arising from our great charities. There is little more than the mere mercenary
in conferring favors and privileges upon persons from whom we expect an
equivalent in return. When a man has nothing to give in exchange for the favors
of his brethren it is a genuine blessing to those who are willing to make for
him a home and a competency of comfort.
This is the philosophy of our home for the aged and
indigent.
The recipients of the willing service of their brethren
have the happy reflection of a well spent life. Their eyes are dim, their
natural strength abated and their ears dulled by age and infirmity. They are
waiting until the hour glass shows the sands of life fully run. The silver cord
may be almost loosed, the golden bowl be nearly broken, the pitcher be frail at
the fountain or the wheel unsteady at the cistern, and yet they feel the gentle
but mighty arms of a great fraternity upon which they can lean with absolute
security. The everlasting embrace of human brotherhood gives them solace in
their helplessness.
There can be no more noble or unselfish service that any
Mason can render than to one who can neither help himself nor make a return for
what others do for him. Equally is this true of the aggregate of our great
Craft in supplying the needs and comforts of life to those who are now cared for
as a special privilege. The law of growth is in doing. Unselfish service will
increase not only the ability to serve but with this growth will come added
power. Timid hearts may have shrunk from the magnitude of the task of providing
for our worthy distressed brother wherever he may be found. But the pitiful sum
from each affiliated Mason so far entirely adequate for all needs, would
willingly be increased many fold if necessity demanded.
Afffliated bodies based upon and drawing their inspiration
from Ancient Craft Masonry would esteem it an honor as well as a privilege to
Participate in financing our great institutions now sheltering young and old
from the storms of adversity.
Only the sentimental and the artistic sit to contemplate
and admire the glories of the setting sun. Every activity, every thrill of life
springs toward the dawn. Man shakes off the drowsiness of a sleep of
recuperation as the morning's new light calls him to the achievements of the
coming day. Every bird joins in the glad jubilee of the morning. The world of
life turns toward the rising sun for a new baptism for new duties. So, while we
may view with satisfaction the aged as they near the sundown of their existence
with the solid comforts their able and willing brethren supply them, we turn
with a new thrill of joy and expectation toward those who in the morning of life
are looking to us for succor and assistance.
Among the choicest fruits gathered from our great old tree
of fraternity is, therefore, the care and support of the children of youth and
of three steps upon the master's carpet are the our system of fraternal
charities. In manhood with all its power and its glory we look toward toward
youth and toward second childhood and greet them with open hearts and purses to
fit the one to fill our places and to bring ease and comfort to those who have
fought and lost the battle of life. In the world at large egoism is well nigh
universal. In Masonry the altruistic spirit softens and beautifies the
otherwise harsh and disagreeable outlines of character. It is the Hiram Abiff
which beautifies and adorns what the wisdom of a Solomon and the strength of the
Tyiian have produced. If we would make Freemasonry eternal we must make sure
that we do not allow eternal conflict between the mercenary and the unselfish to
result in the destruction of the noble sentiment that "the greatest of these is
charity." Our ritual is a classic. Its structure is mechanically perfect. To
master it and present it effectively is a great accomplishment. Our growth and
strength have been in proportion to its unity and beauty. Yet a ritual without
the soul of Masonry is dead. It is a skeleton of dry bones hung together by
wires as may be seen in the doctor's office or the class room of the medical
college. Our care for the old and young in our homes is not our whole duty. In
every lodge in city, town, or hamlet, are abundant needs for the kindly and
friendly offices of the individual Mason. Organized charity, so-called, does
not supersede the generous duty of the Craftsman. If he has really imbibed the
true spirit of our wonderful brotherhood he will not allow the sun to go down
without the relief of every worthy distressed brother within the length of his
cable-tow.
Neither will the measurement be by any circumscribed
standards. Wherever there is a human sigh, a pain of anguish, a sorrow-stricken
heart or a fevered brow this cable tow will be found sufficient to reach it.
The mission of Masonry is to every corner of the world, in which may crouch
distress or suffering or want. It goes to uplift, to gladden, and to beautify.
To uprear noble, manly character whether in society, in religion, in the state,
or in the infinite relations of individual life is Masonry's divinest mission.
----o----
"The world wants men, large hearted, manly men.
Men who will join its chorus and prolong
Its psalm of labor and its song of love.
The age wants heroes: Heroes who shall dare
To struggle in the serried ranks of truth,
To clutch the monster Error by the throat,
To bear opinion to a loftier scat,
To blot the era of oppression out
And lead a universal freedom in."
----o----
No man is without some quality, by the due application of
which he might deserve well of the world; and whoever he be that has but little
in his power should be in haste to do that little, lest he be confounded with
him that can do nothing. - Dr. Johnson
----o---
Morals are more needed than mathematics; right living will
do more for us than right spelling; graciousness is more esential than grammer;
equity is a nobler tribute than eloquence.
----o----
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - MAJOR GENERAL
ARTHUR ST. CLAIR
BY BRO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
GENERAL ST. CLAIR was
born in Scotland, in 1734, of noble family. After graduating at the University
of Edinburgh he served an apprenticeship with Dr. William Hunter of London. His
father had died when he was as yet a boy: after the loss of his mother in 1757
he purchased the remaining time of his indentures and bought a commission in the
Royal American regiment of foot. He was in the fight at Louisburg, N.S., under
Generals Amherst, Wolf, and other English general officers. He participated in
the capture of Quebec in 1759, and it was he who seized the colors which had
fallen from the hands of a dying soldier on the Plains of Abraham and bore them
to victory.
The writer has always
believed that the defeat of the French at that time had more to do with the
establishing of freedom, the inherent rights of man, and equality on this
continent than our own Revolution!
St. Clair married Miss
Bayard, a French Huguenot of Boston, whose fortune, added to his own, made him
quite independent. He resigned from the British Army in 1762 to reside in
Boston. Two years later he moved to Bedford, Pennsylvania, where partly by
purchase and partly by grant, he had secured a tract of land. Here he
established his residence and erected a grist mill. He was elected surveyor of
the Cumberland District and justice of a court, recorder of deeds, and clerk of
the Orphans Court.
All this he abandoned
at the approach of the Revolutionary War. In 1775 he was commissoned a Colonel
by Hancock, president of the Congress at that time. In a letter to Witherspoon,
St. Clair said, "I hold that no man has a right to withhold his services when
his country needs them. Be the sacrifices ever so great, it must be yielded upon
the altar of patriotism."
He raised the famous
Second Pennsylvania regiment, filling his ten companies in a few weeks. His
first service was at Quebec, where he arrived in time to cover the retreating
American armies. He commanded at the disastrous fight of Three Rivers, after the
death of General Thompson. He was in the fight of Ticonderoga, and was promoted
to the rank of Brigadier. After being with Washington in New Jersey at the
battles of Trenton and Princeton, he was made Major General. It was at this time
that he became so endeared to Washington. He met some reverses later which, in
appearance, might have caused us to reflect on his character as a military
leader: but fortunately Jared Sparks has preserved for us the real facts and
thus saved his admirable record. Spark says of him, "Time proved that he had
acted the part of the skilful and judicious officer."
His subsequent career
was all brilliant. He was appointed to the command of West Point when General
Arnold had flunked; and he was a member of the court that convicted Major Andre.
His last battle was at Yorktown. After the war he was elected to Congress, of
which he served as president. Later, he was made governor of the Northwest
Territory.
Notwithstanding his
brilliant and honorable career he died poor. In the eighty-fourth year of his
life he undertook a journey to Youngstown, and was found dead on the road the
next morning. Whether he was buried by charity or not his biographers do not
say, but they do say this, which will be of keen interest to my reader:
"In the cemetery at
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, there is a neat little sandstone monument erected by a
Masonic lodge with this inscription:
"The earthly remains of Major General Arthur St. Clair are
deposited beneath this humble monument, which is erected to supply the place of
a nobler one, due from his country."
That a nobler monument
was due there is no question, but the lodge that erected the sandstone memorial
probably had in mind the kind of countrymen who then lived. But times have
changed. When the writer first heard of that memorial he took steps to induce
the Sons of the American Revolution to consider the erection of that "nobler one
due from his country," but while making the effort found that Brother John S.
Sell, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania had, on the 15th day of
August 1913, unveiled a "nobler monument" in granite, an exact duplicate of the
old sandstone memorial, except for the explanatory inscription on the east
panel: even the quaint style of lettering is closely imitated. On the east Danel
this is added:
"Beneath this monument also lies Phoebe Bayard, wife of
General St. Clair. She died September 18th, 1818."
A new and deeper
foundation was placed under this granite monument than had existed under the
old.
General St. Clair was
a member of N. C. Harmony Lodge. No. 2. in Ohio.
----o----
THE HOLY SAINTS JOHN
BY BRO. BENJAMIN WELLINGTON BRYANT, CALIFORNIA
CONCLUSION
WE NOW COME to the era of Grand Lodges, and the resultant
crystallization of ritual. Here it will be interesting to follow the growth of
the Johannine idea through the various rituals and ritualistic revisions of the
eighteenth century. The collection of ritualistic and Monitorial allusions
which I have been able to gather is probably far from complete, but I, believe
that they are fairly representative and hence sufficient for the purpose of the
present paper. Possibly some brother having access to other Johannine formulae
may be able to add further items of interest. From a bare reference in the
earliest catechisms, we find it developing into the historical extravagances of
the tradition in its full flower. Thence, with the broadening of Masonic
thought bringing better understanding of the true import of the Regulation of
1723, we see it finally declining to the less pretentious form in use at the
present time. Here we have an excellent opportunity to follow the sectarian
tendency which held the Fraternity in so firm a grasp during the eighteenth, and
well into the nineteenth century. This tendency, it appears, was at last
checked largely through the labours of Bro. Pike and Bro. Mackey, the latter
drawing much of his inspiration from the former. (We are prone to think of
Albert Pike as distinctively the exponent of the high degrees, but we should not
forget the debt of gratitude we owe to him and to those brethren whom he
gathered about him for their influence in extending the horizon of thought in
Blue Lodge Masonry, for what Bro. Roscoe Pound denominates "Masonic
Protestantism." (33))
In the earliest lectures in use under the "revived" Grand
Lodge after 1717 we find the formula: "From whence came you? A. From the holy
Lodge of St. John. Q. What recommendation do you bring from thence? A. A
recommendation from the brothers and fellows of that right worshipful and holy
lodge of St. John from whence I came, who greet you thrice heartily." (34) In
1721 we find a hint of the developing sectarian tendency in the lecture, which
nevertheless still retains the pleasant ring of goodfellowship expressed in the
earlier form: "God's good greeting be to this happy meeting. And all right
worshipful brothers and fellows of the right worshipful and holy Lodge of St.
John. Q. Why do you denominate it the holy Lodge of St. John? A. Because he was
the forerunner of our Saviour, and laid the first parallel line to the Gospel."
(35) The Chetwoode Crowley Ms. quotes allusion from the Catechism of 1723: "Here
am I, the youngest and last entered apprentice, as I am sworn by God and St.
John, by the Square and Compass and common judge." (36) (Possibly "common judge"
is a corruption of "common guage"). "The Grand Mystery" published in 1725 gives
the following in the Catechism: "Q. What Lodge are you of? A. The Lodge of St.
John," and later in the same: "How many angles in St. John's Lodge? A. Four,
bordering on Squares." (37) In the ritual as improved by Desaguliers and
Anderson, both of whom were clergymen, we find a further sectarian development
of the reference, for it is explained that the lodges were called St. John's
Lodges because: "he was the baptizer and forerunner of our Saviour; and
announced him as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." This
corresponds with the French ritual of 1730: "D. Comments appele cette Loge? R.
La Loge de S. Jean," and the passage was thus explained: "Il fait toujours
repondre ainsi que c'est le nom de toutes les Loges." (38) Dr. Oliver also
quotes from the second edition of Anderson's Constitutions of 1738 as follows:
"In France these festivals are celebrated on the same days but they are call
'Fetes Solstitiales; hommage au G. A. D. l'U." (39), which would seem to
indicate that the French brethren still retained a solstitial form of the
tradition at a time when the Craft in Britain were abandoning it in favour of a
more theological version. In the year 1732 Martin Clare prepared a revision of
the ritual, but I have not been able to find any quotations from it. Oliver
credits him with a continuance of the Johannine tradition, but Dr. Mackey sees
in this revision the beginnings of an attempt to counteract the sectarianizing
or Christianizing tendency which had hitherto been on the ascendant. (40)
Evidently some of the brethren were beginning to awaken to the real spirit of
the Regulation of 1723, but there was yet a long road ahead, as we shall see.
The Clare lectures appear to have prevailed with some
revision until the adoption of those of Dunckerley in 1770. Dunckerley's
lectures give the earliest example where an allusion is incorporated in the O.B.
which I have been able to locate. It is as follow s: "In the presence of God and
this right worshipful and holy lodge dedicated to God and Holy St. John," and
the asseveration corresponded to it, "so help me God and Holy St. John." (41) To
Dunckerley is also ascribed the first introduction of the "lines parallel." (42)
His formula runs thus: "This code is embordered by two perpendicular parallel
lines, representing St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist who were
perfect parallels in Christianity as well as in Masonry." (43)
In what is known as the "Old York Lecture," used about the
same time, we find a most elaborate catechism of a type which must have
delighted the heart of Dr. Oliver:
"Q. Our Lodges bong finished, furnished and decorated with
ornaments, furniture and jewels, to whom they were consecrated?"
"A. To God."
"Q. Thank you, brother, and can you tell me to whom they
were first dedicated?"
"A. To Noah, who was saved in the Ark."
"Q. And by what name were the Masons then known?"
"A. They were called Noachidee, Sages, or Wise Men."
"Q. To whom were the lodges dedicated during the Mosaic
dispensation?"
"A. To Moses, the chosen of God, and Solomon, the son of
David."
"Q. And under what name were the Masons known during that
period?"
"A. Under the name of Dionysiacs, Geometricians, or Masters
in Israel."
"Q. But as Solomon was a Jew, and died long before the
promulgation of Christianity, to whom were they dedicated under the Christian
dispensation?"
"A. From Solomon the patronage of Masonry passed to St.
John the Baptist."
"Q. And under what name were they known after the
promulgation of Christianity?"
"A. Under the name of Essenes, Architects, or Freemasons."
"Q. Why were the lodges dedicated to St. John the Baptist?"
"A. Because he was the forerunner of our Saviour, and by
preaching repentance and humiliation, drew the first parallel of the Gospel."
"Q. Had St. John the Baptist any equal?"
"A. He had; St. John the Evangelist."
"Q. Why was he said to be the equal of the Baptist?"
"A. Because he finished by his learning what the other
began by his zeal, and thus drew a second line parallel to the former; ever
since which time Freemason's lodges in all Christian countries, have been
dedicated to the one, or the other, or both of these worthy and worshipful men."
(44)
To understand the next version of the tradition we must
return to the year 1740, when Chevalier Ramsey, as Orator of the Grand Lodge of
France, promulgated the Templar theory in an oration delivered before that body.
Mackay and Gould both quote from that oration, the part referring to the subject
under consideration being as follows: "During the time of the holy wars in
Palestine, several principal lords and citizens associated themselves together,
and entered into a vow to re-establish the temples of the Christians in the Holy
Land; and engaged themselves by an oath to employ their talents and their
fortune in restoring architecture to its primitive institution.(?) They adopted
several ancient signs and symbolic words drawn from religion by which they might
distinguish themselves from the infidels and recognize each other in the midst
of the Saracens. They communicated these signs and words only to those who had
solemnly sworn, often at the foot of the altar, never to reveal them. This was
not an oath of execration but a bond uniting men of all nations into the same
confraternity. Some time after our order was united with the Knights of St. John
of Jerusalem. Hence our lodges are, in all Christian countries, called Lodges
of St. John." (45)
That oration must have created a profound sensation among
the Craft in England as well as in France, and we find in this extract from a
lecture in use in the north of England late in the century, a reply to it: "Our
lodges are untruly said to be dedicated to St. John because the Masons who
engaged to conquer the Holy Land chose that saint for their patron. We should
be sorry to appropriate the Balsarian sect of Christians to St. John as an
explanation of this principle. St. John obtains our dedication as being the
proclaimer of that salvation which was at hand by the coming of Christ; and we
as a set of religious men, assembling in the true faith, commemorate the
proclamations of the Baptist. In the name of St. John the Evangelist, we
acknowledge the testimonies which he gives, and the divine Logos which he makes
manifest." And again in the same lecture: "Our beauty is such as adorns all our
actions; is hewn out of the rock, which is Christ; raised upright by the
plumb-line of the Gospel; and squared and levelled by the horizontal of God's
will in the holy Lodge of St. John; and as such becomes the temple whose maker
and builder is God." (46)
Dr. Oliver also cites another version of similar import
which he ascribes, rather indefinitely, "to our transatlantic brethren," and
which is certainly an ingenious attempt to propitiate all parties and sects:
"The dedications are made to these Saints, not as
Christians, but as eminent Masons; and if we are gratuitous in bestowing such a
character upon them, this does not affect the merit of the argument, because the
dedication is made under the supposition that such was their character. They
are honoured by us, not as Saints, but as good and pious men - not as teachers
of religion, but as bright examples of all those virtues which Masons are taught
to reverence and practice. And if it incidentally happens that they were also
Christians, such a circumstance should, with a tolerant Jew, be objection to the
honours paid to them; but with th sincere Christian a better reason." (47)
The Ramsey idea was adopted by the notorious imposter
Finch, who incorporated a passage upon the oration of 1740 into one of his
rituals: "What is the chief reason why our lodges are dedicated to St. John? A.
Because in the time of the Crusades, the Masons having united themselves with
the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem to fight against the infidels, they adopted
that Saint as their tutelary protector and being victorious in their conflicts
with the Saracens, they unanimously agreed that all Masonic lodges should in
future be dedicated to him." (48)
There is another version which Mackey quotes from an old
lecture adopted into the Prestonian system, which, while it bears some
resemblance to the old York lecture, is less ambitious in its historical
claims. It is said that a group of early Christians did actually send a
deputation to the Evangelist, who was then at Ephesus, requesting him to give
them a code of rules for their observance, "that the identity of their faith
might be preserved as an exclusive society" (49) and the story of that event may
have inspired some eighteenth century ritualist to compose this beautiful bit of
Masonic fiction:
"From the building of the first temple at Jerusalem to the
Babylonish captivity, Freemason's lodges were dedicated to King Solomon; from
thence to the coming of the Messiah they were dedicated to Zerubbabel the
builder of the second temple; and from that time to the final destruction of the
Temple by Titus, in the reign of Vespasian, they were dedicated to St. John the
Baptist; but owing to the many massacres and disorders which attended that
memorable event Freemasonry sunk very much into decay; many lodges were entirely
broken up, and but few could meet in sufficient numbers to constitute their
legality; and at a general meeting of the Craft, held in the city of Benjamin,
it was observed that the principal reason for the decline of Masonry was the
want of a Grand Master to patronize it. They therefore deputed seven of their
most eminent members to wait upon St. John the Evangelist, who was at that time
Bishop of Ephesus, requesting him to take the office of Grand Master. He
returned for answer, that though well stricken in years (being upwards of
ninety), yet having been initiated into Masonry in the early part of his life,
he would take upon himself that office. He therefore completed by his learning
what the other St. John effected by his zeal, and thus drew what Freemasons term
a 'line parallel'; ever since which time, Freemasons lodges in all Christian
countries have been dedicated both to St. John the Baptist and St. John the
Evangelist." (50)
The Preston lectures were the standard in England until the
reconciliation between the "Ancient" and "Modern" factions in 1813, when the
Hemming lectures were adopted as a compromise ritual. In the Hemming system the
Johannine dedication was eliminated, the parallel lines were said to represent
Moses and Solomon, and the lodges dedicated "to God and his service." (51) Thus
our English brethren silenced, so far as these two Saints were concerned, all
possibility of a charge of sectarianism. The change was not made without
protest however; many brethren withdrew from the Fraternity rather than accept
the new lectures, and as previously noted, even as late as 1848, Dr. Oliver was
inspired to write and publish his "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," which would
indicate that the change was still rankling in the hearts of numbers of the
English brethren.
This concludes our review so far as European Masonry is
concerned. In this country Thomas Smith Webb had already published his Monitor,
which was based on the Prestonian system, prior to the Reconciliation, and by
the time that event took place his system had evidently gained sufficient
foothold largely to counteract whatever influence the Hemming system might
otherwise have exerted, and, supported by the, anti-British feeling engendered
by the then recent Revolution and by the troubles which the young Republic was
still having with the motifer country, was sufficiently strong to prevent the
young American Grand Lodges from abandoning the Johannine in favour of the
Solomonic formula. The first edition of Webb's Monitor appeared in 1797,
coincident with the movement to sever the Royal Arch from the Blue Lodge system,
in which he was a leading spirit. In 1813, while the Reconciliation was being
consummated in England, he was serving as Grand Master of Rhode Island, thus,
perhaps unwittingly, adding the weight of that dignity to the side of the
balance against any change that might have taken place.
The edition of the Webb Monitor to which I have access is
the fifth, published in 1866, but does not appear to have been revised to any
extent. In it the formula is as follows:
"By a recurrence to the chapter upon the dedication of
lodges it will be perceived, that although our ancient brethren dedicated their
lodges to King Solomon, yet Masons professing Christianity dedicate theirs to
St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, who were eminent patrons of
Masonry." (52)
Webb also uses the phrase: "who were perfect parallels in
Christianity as well as in Masonry."
I have also a copy of the Macoy Monitor of the middle
nineteenth century which gives a version apparently based upon the Ramsey theory
as enunciated by Finch:
"Lodges in ancient times were dedicated to King Solomon ...
and continued to be so dedicated until after the Crusades. Among the various
orders of knights engaged in those chivalric wars, none were more conspicuous
than the magnanimous order of the Knights of St. John. Many brethren of our
ancient Craft also went forth to aid in redeeming the sepulchre of the Saviour
from the hands of the infidel; between these and the Knights of St. John there
existed a reciprocal feeling of brotherly love. On the plains of Jerusalem they
entered into a solemn compact of friendship, and it was mutually agreed between
them that henceforth all lodges whose members acknowledge the divinity of
Christ, should be dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist,
who were two eminent patrons of Freemasonry." (53)
Finally, and to us most interesting of all, is the "Manual
of the Lodge," by Dr. Mackey, published in 1862, wherein we find the earliest
publication of the version which seems to be most generally in use among
American Grand Lodges at the present time:
"Our ancient brethren dedicated their lodges to King
Solomon because he was our first Most Excellent Grand Master; but modern Masons
dedicate theirs to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist who were two
eminent patrons of Masonry." (54)
To this Bro. Mackey adds a note in which, as in his
Encyclopedia, he lays particular stress upon the solstitial character of the
Johannine festivals and dedication. It was as follows:
"The two parallel lines, which in the modern lectures
represent St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, really allude to
particular periods in the sun's annual course. At two particular points in this
course, the sun is found on the zodiacal signs, Cancer and Capricorn, which are
distinguished as the summer and winter solstices. When the sun is at these
points he has reached his greatest northern and southern limit. These points,
if we suppose the circle to represent the sun's annual course, will be indicated
by the points where the parallel lines touch the circle. But the days when the
sun reaches these points are the 21st of June and the 22nd of December, and this
will account for their subsequent application to the two Sts. John, whose
anniversaries the Church has placed near these days." (55)
Thus we find that, while the Johannine tradition cannot be
accepted as based on veritable historical fact in the sense of regarding the
Baptist and the Evangelist as having been personally connected with the
Fraternity, yet its recognition by the Craft, in one or another of its varied
forms, dates from most remote antiquity. In modern speculative Masonry there
are no missing portions in the line of descent from the "revival" of 1717 until
the present time. In the words of Dr. Oliver:
"In the original lectures compiled by Sayer, Payne, and
Desaguliers, and as improved by Anderson, Desaguliers and Cowper; in the
revisions of Dunckerley and Martin Clare, twice repeated, and in the extended
rituals of Hutchinson, Preston and others, the St. Johns occupy their place as
patrons of Masonry. In no one ritual, whether ancient or modern, in use during
the 18th century, have they been omitted." (56)
We must remember that the centuries prior to the birth of
speculative Masonry knew little or nothing of the almanac and the calendar as
popular conveniences, and hence the annual festivals of pagan times and the
Saint's days which took their places under Christian influence were
indispensable aids in marking the years and the seasons. In Britain, even long
after 1534 when the yoke of the Vatican was thrown off, the religious thought
remained strongly under its influence and there was little change from the
church customs of the earlier allegiance. What more natural then, than that our
brethren of that period should preserve the midyear and midsummer festival of
the Baptist as the date for their annual assemblies. Later when the need for
more frequent fraternal communication became manifest, the Evangelist's day in
midwinter was the most logical companion date.
But in spite of the narrow and almost iron-clad theology of
the time, the close of the sixteenth century, as Bro. Waite notes in his "Real
History of the Rosicrucians," beheld a great wave of mysticism spreading over
central Europe, and thence into England, France, Italy, and Denmark. (57) In
England this movement found its chief expression through the Rosicrucian school
of thought and we find that the influx of speculatives during the seventeenth
century brought in the Fraternity such men as Ashmole, Vaughn, Sir Robert Moray
(or Murray), Wren, Locke, Boyle, and others of strong Rosicrucian tendencies,
and of sufficient learning and prominence to be Fellows of the Royal Society.
The Rosicrucian philosophy embodied much of that universal religion which is the
basis of Freemasonry, but its adherents found it wise to conceal its broad
principles under a veil of Christian mysticism in that age when any open and
free statement of such doctrine would have subjected them to persecution or
ostracism. These men must have understood, as possibly the operatives of their
day did not, the astronomical origin of the Johannine festivals, and from the
standpoint of that knowledge, might very possibly have lent their influence to
the more regular observance of those dates. Coming upon the scene during the
period when the stage was unwittingly being set for the "revival" or "revolution
of 1717," they must have lent a very considerable influence to the shaping of
the circumstances which led up to that event. Viewing the Johannine dedication
and festivals in the light of solstitial observance which had been celebrated
from most remote antiquity, and thus truly in harmony with the liberal spirit,
not only of Rosicrucian, but also of Masonic faith, it seems even more probable
that we are indebted in considerable measure to those early mystics for the
perpetuation of this custom of the Craft.
With the revival in 1717 the ritual fell into the hands of
such orthodox ministers of the Gospel as Dr. Anderson and Dr. Desaguliers, who
would, of course, see the observances in their Christian, rather than in their
solstitial and mystical aspect. Under their hands it was shaped into a
Christian tradition, and the ritualists who followed them apparently adopted
their lead and further developed it as we have seen. It is most fascinating to
trace, through the early meager references and the later wild fabrications of
tradition, the development from the early dedication and festival observance,
through the full bloom of a sectarian legend down to our modern unassuming and
inoffensive version. It is not surprising, when this one item could develop into
such full flower that many other fabulous statements could gain circulation and
credence among the brethren. Bro. Gould quotes and condemns a number of these.
According to one, "27,000 Masons accompanied the Christian princes in the
Crusades." Another was the statement that Martin Luther was received into the
Society on Christmas night, 1520, just fifteen days after he had burned the
Pope's Bull; and still other, and even more absurd were that the Craft was
introduced into Britain, A. M. 2974, by "E-Brank, King of the Trojan race, and
into Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah." (58)
According to Bro. Mackey, a reaction from the sectarian
influence and the flights of imagination of the earlier ritualists began to
become manifest in the Clare revision, (59) though I have found no quotations
from it bearing upon the subject of the present paper. Neither have I found any
from the ritual used by the Dermott or "Ancient" faction unless the "old York
lecture" above quoted belonged to them. However, the opponents of the
Christianizing tendency apparently finally made their voices heard and gained a
signal victory in the adoption of the Hemming lectures. I am not prepared to
discuss the wisdom of that change other than to remark that one argument in its
favour is that it removed one point of temptation beyond the reach of those
susceptible to its influence. Here in America we seem to have gradually receded
from the more sectarian versions to the unassuming one in general use at present
which apparently gives no offence to our brethren of the Jewish faith.
We have long since abandoned the belief that the two Johns
in person were patrons of the Fraternity. Both Gould and Mackey recognize their
symbolical character. (60) Dr. Mackey thus defines a symbol in the Masonic
acceptance of the word: "A symbol is defined to be a visible sign with which a
spiritual feeling, emotion or idea is connected." (61) This thought should be
ever borne in mind in the study of Masonic ritual and symbolism, for in no other
way can much of our system of speculative Masonry be interpreted. As the
operative art of our ancient brethren was deemed a high and noble science, so
their organization, well worthy of so noble a fate, has been bequeathed to us as
a Speculative Fraternity, and has become, by some yet unexplained method, the
repository of a wonderful science of symbols based partly upon the builder's art
and partly upon ancient mystical religion and philosophy.
It is well to remember that the whole purpose of symbolism,
in the sense used by Bro. Mackey, in the ages which saw its origin as a
development of the earlier picture writing, was to convey or reveal truth only
to such as were duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified; and that its
early authors were remarkable adepts in the art of so concealing those truths
which they held to be too sacred for the unworthy profane. It is well to
remember these facts in approaching the study of Masonry, for we may thus, if we
in our turn "are duly and truly prepared," open the way to clues which will lead
to the discovery of some of those vast treasures of hidden truth which modern
Freemasonry has inherited from those schools of the secret wisdom of antiquity,
- the Ancient Mysteries, and from some of their later successors.
Nowhere in the ritual or monitors of the Craft is there a
more perfect example of this, nor one more easily demonstrated when we find its
key, than in the great natural truths so carefully hidden behind the meager
references remaining in our work to the two characters which are the subjects of
the present paper. I would not minimize the importance of the moral which the
monitor attaches to them, but would emphasize my belief that this represents
only a fraction of the real lesson. Their festivals, engrafted as we have seen,
upon the old solstitial festivals which were so prominent in the Light-religions
of antiquity, give us a miniature statement of the whole philosophy of Masonry,
which is a mystery-drama of human life. Falling upon June 24th and December
27th, dates so close to the summer and winter solstices as to leave no doubt as
to their origin, they give us more than a hint of the close relation of man with
the phenomena of the visible universe, - "the microcosm in the macrocosm. For
our Masonic purposes, it matters little what particular story we ascribe to
these dates; the fact of our observance of them as ancient festivals of the
Fraternity preserves the spirit of the symbolism; and whether we observe them as
the midsummer and midwinter solstices under the beautifully poetical phraseology
of the Osiric, Eleusinian or Druidic Mysteries, or as the feast days of
Christian saints traditionally alleged to have lent their patronage to our
Fraternity, the fundamental lesson is the same.
The reputed character of the Baptist and of the Evangelist
adapts their festivals very readily to the symbolism. The feast of the Baptist
recalls to our memory his inflexible fidelity and martyrdom for his faith, and
thus, while reminding us of another martyrdom for similar high principles which
is familiar to all Masons, furnishes a worthy ideal for Masonic consideration.
In the rite of baptism from which his distinctive title is derived is symbolized
the cleansing of the heart from the dross of selfishness and vice, and the
spiritual initiation of the soul into the knowledge of the mysteries of eternal
life. Thus the festival of his birth very appropriately coincides with the
summer solstice, when all visible nature is at the zenith of life, light, and
joy. On the other hand, the festival of the Evangelist who is so fortunately
represented as a man in the winter and wisdom of life; who so insistently
proclaimed the gospel of brotherly love; and whose writings teem with allegories
of the mystical initiation into the secrets that lie beyond the veil of material
vision, is very properly assigned to that period of the year when life has
reached its full maturity and seems about to depart from the earth. Considering
all this he too becomes a worthy and appropriate figure for Masonic recognition.
We therefore find in these two figures, so peculiarly and
even mysteriously connected with Masonry, that broad symbolism which admits of
universal interpretation and appreciation. It is truly in harmony with the
spirit of "that religion in which all men agree" and is therefore really
Masonic. Their festivals falling upon the two extremes of the year well
represent the cycle of nature and of human life, and thereby give us a key to
the whole philosophy of Masonry. Though of Christian derivation, their Masonic
interpretation carries the same lesson for the Jew and the Theist as for the
Christian brother. They tell of the eternal cycle of existence, of manifestation
and disappearance, of activity and repose, which is the eternal and immutable
law of God, and which is so fittingly expressed in our familiar phrase: "From
labour to refreshment and from refreshment to labour again."
33. "Philosophy of Freemasonry," Pound, p. 66.
34. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 26.
35. Ibid, p. 34.
36. "Essays," Gould, p. xix
37. "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 4, pp. 281-2.
38. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 27.
39. Ibid, p. 67.
40. "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on
"Martin Clare."
41. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver; p. 27.
42. "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on "Dunckerley."
43. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 35.
44. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 27; also
"Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on "Dedications."
45. "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 3, p. 341; also
"Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on "Ramsey."
46. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 29.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid, p. 20.
49. "Annot. on John," Kitto.
50. "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on
"Dedication."
51. Ibid, article on "Parallel Lines."
52. "Freemason's Monitor," Webb, P. 31, 5th Edition,
republished, Cincinnati 1866.
53. "Masonic Manual," Robert Macoy, 15th Edition, New York
1858.
54. "Manual of the Lodge," Mackey, New York, 1862.
55. Ibid, p. 57.
56. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 32.
57. "Real History of the Rosicrucians," Waite, p. 39, New
York 1888.
58. "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. P. 127.
59. "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on
"Lectures."
60. "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 3, p. 79; also
"Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," article on "Dedication."
61. "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on
"Symbols."
----o----
CROSS AND FLAG
BY FREDERICK L. HOSMER
From "Flag Day," edited by B.H. Schauffler, and published
by Moffat, Yard & Company
From age to age they gather, ail the brave of heart and
strong,
In the strife of truth with error, of the right against the
wrong;
I can see their gleaming banner, I can hear their triumph
song;
The Truth is marching on!
"In this sign we conquer"; 'tis the symbol of our faith,
Made holy by the might of love, triumphant over death;
He finds his life who loseth it, forever more it saith:
The Right is marching on!
The earth is circling onward, out of shadow into light;
The stars keep watch above our way, however dark the night;
For every martyr's stripe there glows a bar of morning
light;
For Love is marching on!
Lead on, O cross of martyr faith, with thee is victory!
Shine forth, O stars and reddening dawn, the full day yet
shall be!
On earth his kingdom
cometh, and with joy our eyes shall see:
Our God is marching
on!
----o----
A LONG MARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT
United by his fellow
men by the strongest of all ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds
that a new vision is with him always, shedding over every daily task the light
of love. The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by
invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope
to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades
vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death. Very
brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery
is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows
by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never tiring affection,
to strengthen failing courage, to instil faith in hours of despair. Let us not
weigh in grudging scales their merits or demerits, but let us think only of
their need,of the sorrows, of the difficulties, perhaps the blindnesses, that
make the misery of their lives; let us remember that they are fellow-sufferers
in the same darkness, actors in the same tragedy with ourselves. And so, when
their day is over, when their good and their evil have become eternal by the
immortality of the past, be it ours to feel that, where they suffered, where
they failed no deed of ours was the cause; but wherever a spark of the divine
fire kindled in their hearts, we were ready with encouragement, with sympathy,
with brave words in which high courage glowed.
- Bertrand Russell.
----o----
A MASONIC BANK
Our Porto Rico
brethren have conceived the novel idea of establishing a "Masonic Bank," which
has become one of the "great banking institutions of San Juan," to use the words
of Grand Secretary J. G. Torres. In a little more than a year its original
capital has been multiplied nine times over, its deposits exceed $150,000, and
its loans also exceed this sum. It has branches in Sabana Grande and Lares and
agencies at three other points. The stock is quoted at a premium of 7 1/2% and
is expected to go higher. It pays interests on open deposits which permanently
exceed $500.00; it has enabled the brethren as well as profanes to hold their
fruits instead of having to sell them at low prices; it has freed the poor from
the grip of the usurers by making loans as small as $25.00 at the legal rate of
interest; it has encouraged thrift and saving; it has aided Grand Lodge with
necessary advances; and has assisted the lodges in building, buying and
enlarging their temples. It is declared to have increased greatly the prestige
of our institution. The bank, though owned and operated by Masons, is not
controlled by Grand Lodge. - Proc., Grand Lodge of Alabama.
----o----
A PARSEE HYMN
BY BRO. GERALD NANCARROW, INDIANA
Thou God of Earth, and Air, and Sea;
Thou never dying Fire,
To Thee within and round about
We, part of Thee, aspire.
Thou art the flame within our hearts,
Thou countless Gods in One;
Thou are the light above the hills,
The Moon, the Stars, the Sun.
Before the worlds rose in the vast
There shone Thy Deathless Ray;
From dust to Suns, from Suns to dust
All is Thy endless day.
And ever through our darkness, yea,
Until no more is night,
Before us shining on our path
Art Thou, Unwaning Light.
----o----
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE EARLY DAYS OF TEMPLARISM
BY BRO. STANLEY C. WARNER, PAST GRAND COMMANDER, COLORADO
Brother Stanley Clark Warner was born at Wilton, in Lenox
County, Ontario, Canada, June 25, 1863. He attended Victoria University at
Coburg, Ontario, and graduated from that institution in May, 1884, with the
degree of B.A.; studied law and was admitted to the bar in the Province of
Ontario in May, 1887, entering into the practice of his profession at Napance,
Ontario. He is now engaged in a steadily increasing legal practice in Denver,
Colorado.
Brother Warner was raised in Doric Lodge No. 316, A.F. &
A.M., Toronto, Canada, on May 19, 1887, later affiliating with Union Lodge No. 7
at Napanee, serving that lodge as Secretary and Senior Warden and chosen as
Worshipful Master in December, 1889. He was a District Deputy Grand Master of
the Grand Lodge of Canada in 1891-92, and served one year on the Board of
General Purposes of that Grand Lodge. In January, 1906, he affiliated with
Albert Pike Lodge No. 117, at Denver, Colorado. He has served the Grand Lodge
of Colorado on various committees, being Chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Correspondence since 1917. He has been an indefatigable worker in all Masonic
Bodies in Denver. In the Grand Commandery of Colorado he was elected Grand
Commander on October 24, 1920.
LARGE numbers of our members and, in fact, many of our
Templar speakers, are still imbued with the fiction that modern Masonic
Templarism has a direct connection with and is the lineal descendant of the
Knights Templar Order, instituted in 1113 by Hugh DePayne to protect pilgrims on
their journey to the Holy Land, and one often hears both publicly expressed and
inferentially suggested that our present Grand Master holds his office in direct
accession to the martyred Jacques De Molai, whom an avaricious king of France,
with the concurrence of an infamous Pope of Rome, burned at the stake in Paris,
March 18, 1313: this despite the fact that this pleasing fiction has been
discarded by numbers of our prominent Masonic writers and historians during the
last quarter of a century, Sir Knight Colman in his Centennial address to the
Grand Encampment in 1916 upon the subject of the early history of that body,
said:
"There is no probability, hardly even any possibility,
that our modern Order of Christian Masonic Knighthood is directly connected with
the ancient Order of Christian Knights whose name and date we proudly bear and
whose valiant character and Christian virtues we emulate."
Dr. Rugg, Past Grand Master of the Grand Encampment, in his
Centennial address to the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
said:
"Tradition and common belief have their value, but they
must not be allowed to offset historic evidence. It is the part of unwisdom to
cling to a theory that has been generally discarded by those who have made the
most extensive and careful examination of the grounds on which it rests. In
this case the most reliable authorities concur in judgment that Masonic Templary,
as recognized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is not historically
connected with or lineally descended from the chivalric orders of the Crusades."
Sir Hopkins, Past Grand Master of the Grand Encampment, at
the Conclave held in Louisville in 1901, said:
I readily admit that we can not show an indisputable title
to this inheritance, but the claim is precious although the title may not be
secure. I would fain believe that the founders of the Order did not leave the
organization which they founded and cemented with their blood to become the
plaything of chance or to rest upon the uncertain tenure of the will or whim of
a rapacious king and a weak pope. I am disposed to admit that it is only a
sentiment, but it is one to which some of us cling tenaciously and which we only
surrender when we recognize that tradition must yield to history."
Sir Knight Parvin, Past Grand Recorder of Iowa and for many
years closely connected with the Grand Encampment, has said: "The popular
theory under which so many writers view the origin and history of Templar
Masonry would trace it back by some mysterious line of connection to the Order
of Malta which was dissolved in 1798, or back to the Order of the Temple, which
ceased to exist in 1313, and the latter theory, even at this day, has many
advocates. A better and truer theory, is to credit the whole system of Masonic
Templarly to the inventive genius of the ritual makers of the eighteenth
century."
Lieut. Col. W.J.B. MacLeod Moore, Supreme Grand Master, ad
vitam, of the Sovereign Great Priory of Canada, frequently declared in his
annual allocutions that Freemasonry was not the successor of the military
Templars.
The published addresses of the distinguished Templars to
which references have been made are not of easy access to the membership of our
Order, and in presenting a short account of our early history at this time, we
have in mind that the information will be thereby more generally available to
such Templars as are interested therein. We make no claim of any personal
research, but simply present to you the facts as collected from the works of
Eminent Sir Knights who have made a life study thereof.
Four long centuries elapsed after the death of Jacques De
Molai and the destruction of the ancient Order before history or even Masonic
tradition suggests the existence of Masonic Templarism. During these four
centuries civil history is silent as to the Templars, and little is known or
related of the Masonic Order. Masons met without charter or other authority,
initiated candidates, often without even an organized lodge or without record of
the same, this by a claim of inherent right, and with no intent or desire to
make their proceedings public. It was only in 1717 that the Masonic Fraternity
assumed an organized existence, and it was shortly after this date that we find
the first suggestion of the Modern Templar Degree. The long cherished alleged
connection of the two orders through Scottish sources rests largely upon the
fact that among the adherents of the Stuart Pretender who fled to France after
his defeat in the early part of the eighteenth century, was one Chevalier
Ramsay, a Mason, a gentleman of much culture, and a tutor of the Second
Pretender, Charles Edward. This distinguished exile, while in France, is said
to have developed a Masonic system with a sixth degree, designated the Knight of
the Temple, and during one of his visits to Scotland, to have created Knights
Templar there. With the Pretender's approval he attempted to use his Masonic
connection to aid the exiled Stuarts, and in grafting upon Masonry a Military
Order, he may have had in mind the assistance which it might be to his
benefactor. Masonic authorities differ as to the truth of these statements, but
in any event the Templar Degree was occasionally conferred in Great Britain
during the middle of the eighteenth century, and encampments of the Order were
during that period formed at London, York, Bristol, and Salisbury, more or less
intimately connected with Craft Masonry.
Moore says that "Templarism was first introduced into the
British Empire in the Masonic lodges known as the Ancients under the Duke of
Athol, who was also Grand Master of Scotland, in the eighteenth century," and
that about 1780 the Templar Degree was merged into the Masonic system, following
the Royal Arch in the sequence of additional degrees.
W. Redfern Kelly, G.C.T., in a series of articles in the
Toronto Freemason, published since this speech was first written, says that the
records of the York Grand Lodges, designated also the Grand Lodge of all
England, of date June, 1780, announced that lodge as asserting authority over
five degrees or orders of Masonry, the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master
Mason, Royal Arch and Knight Templar, and also show the conferring of the
Templar Degree at York, England, on November 29, 1779. He further asserts that
this Grand Lodge was the only one which officially recognized the Order of the
Temple as being Masonic, in either Great Britain or Ireland during the
eighteenth century.
The history of the Order of the Temple, by Sir Patrick
Colquhoun of London, England, published in 1878, is authority for the statement
that in 1769 the Mother Kilwinning Lodge of Scotland issued a charter to
Kilwinning Masonic Lodge of Dublin, which authorized the conferring of the
degree of Knight Templar therein, but it would appear that the Order was found
in Dublin prior to that date in the possession of military organizations
composed of the soldiers of Scotland and Ireland. It is probably by this same
military source that the Order was introduced into this country in Boston about
the same period. Hughan, the great English Masonic authority, makes the
positive statement that the first authentic record of the conferring of the
Order is found in the minutes of St. Andrews Royal Arch Lodge in Boston under
date August 28, 1769, where we read that "the petition of Bro. William Davis
coming before the lodge begging to have and receive the parts belonging to a
Royal Arch Mason, which being read, was received and he unanimously voted in,
and was accordingly made by receiving the four steps, that of Excellent,
Super-Excellent, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar."
Like the history of Masonry prior to 1717, the early
history of Masonic Templarism consists of the record of the meetings of Knights
of the Order in various places for the purpose of conferring the same, without
any constituted authority, by inherent right only, acting sometimes with and
sometimes without the sanction of regular Masonic lodges.
The records of this same St Andrews Royal Arch Chapter show
that in December, 1769, "the petition of Bro. Paul Revere coming before the
lodge begging to become an Arch Mason, it was received and he was unanimously
accepted and accordingly made." He subsequently became in the same body a Knight
Templar. In 1770 it was voted "that the M. M. Joseph Warren, Esq., should be
made a Royal Arch Mason this evening, and he was accordingly made, gratis." The
minutes of this body show the conferring of the order or degree of Knight
Templar on about 50 candidates between the years 1769 and 1794.
In the last decade of the eighteenth century encampments
were formed by prominent Craftsmen in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, at Boston,
Providence, Newburyport, and Portland (now in Maine), at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania; at Wilmington, Delaware; at Albany and New York City; at
Baltimore, Maryland; and at Charleston, South Carolina, in all of which
encampments the Order of the Temple was conferred.
The next step was the formation of Grand Encampments, as
they were then called, in the various states. The first was organized in
Philadelphia, May 12, 1797, with four constituent bodies. It had but a brief
existence, was revived in 1814, again became extinct in 1824, and remained so
during the Anti-Masonic Excitement. It was again revived in 1852 under the
authority of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, to which it acknowledged
allegiance until 1857, when, with the consent of the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania, it became part of the Grand Encampment of the United States.
The most important event in this era of Templar history was
the organization in 1805 at the city of Providence of the Grand Encampment of
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This is especially true, because the Templars
responsible for its organisation were almost identically those who subsequently
in 1816 participated in the organization of our present governing body, and as
any history of our Order is incomplete which does not particularly deal with the
lives of at least three of these pioneers of American Templarism, we shall for a
few moments digress from the actual subject under consideration.
Thomas Smith Webb, founder of St. John's Encampment in
Providence in 1802, presiding officer from 1805 to 1817 of what is now called
the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and Deputy Grand Master
from 1816 until his death in 1819, of the General Grand Encampment of the United
States, was born in Boston in 1771, was made a Mason in New Hampshire in 1792, a
Royal Arch Mason in Philadelphia in 1796, and a Knight Templar sometime previous
to 1802, either in Temple Encampment at Albany, in a Philadelphia Encampment, in
the Boston Encampment, or in the Old Encampment of New York City, all four of
which still claim the honour. He was the author of several successive editions
of "The Free Mason's Monitor," was an organizer of great ability, had an
attractive personality, a win-some manner, with indefatigable energy, and a
great versatility of language, both written and oral, all of which joined in
making for him the high reputation which he has since held as a Masonic
ritualist and organizer. He has been said to have invented the American system
of Templary, and there is no doubt that he, along with Fowle, is responsible for
the present impressive ceremonies, not only of the Templar Order but, in a large
measure, of Craft Masonry and the Royal Arch system. He died suddenly July 6,
1819, while on a visit to Cleveland, Ohio, and was buried there just shortly
prior to the Second Triennial Session of our Grand Encampment. His remains were
subsequently removed to the North Burial Ground at Providence, Rode Island,
where a monument of white marble has been erected to his memory.
Henry Fowle, first Sovereign Master of Boston Encampment of
Red Cross Knights and Grand Master of that Encampment when it was reorganized as
a Templar body in 1806, which office he held until 1824, Grand Generalissimo of
the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island from its organization in
1805 until 1817, then its Deputy Grand Master and subsequently its Grand Master
from 1820 to 1825; was named Grand Generalissimo of the General Grand Encampment
at its organization in 1816, and was elected Deputy Grand Master at the
Triennial Conclave in 1819. Sir Knight Fowle was a member of St. Andrew's
Chapter of Boston, where he received the Knight Templar degree on the 28th of
January, 1795. He was a great friend of Webb, and a ritualist of a very high
order. He was a well known lecturer and his powers of organization made him,
when working in conjunction with Webb, a potent factor in all branches of
Masonic, work. To the efforts of these two men is due the organization of what
is known at present as the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
and also that of our present governing body, to which reference will be made
later.
DeWitt Clinton was born at Little Britain, New York, in
1769, and died in February, 1828. He was the father of the Great Canal System
of the Empire State, served as its Governor, having resigned a seat in the
United States Senate for the purpose, was in 1812 a candidate against James
Madison for President of the United States, was Grand Master of Masons of New
York from 1806 to 1819, was selected first Grand Master of the General Grand
Encampment of the United States in 1816, and served as such until his death on
the 11th of February, 1828. He devoted a busy and useful life to the service of
his community and to an Order which he considered as wielding a great influence
for good in the government, both of his state and country. He was at the head of
the Order during the early days of the unfortunate Morgan excitement, and did
much by his influence to alleviate the disastrous conditions which resulted
therefrom. He was a lawyer, a statesman, and a patriot, and with Webb and Fowle
formed a combination to which is largely due the present status of Templarism in
the United States.
The Grand Encampment of New York was organized in 1814; and
was in a great measure an outgrowth from the "Sovereign Grand Consistory"
organized by the well-known Masonic charlatan, Joseph Cerneau.
There were in existence in 1816 three sovereign grand
bodies of the Order - Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and New
York, in addition to which there were isolated encampments working in
Connecticut, Maryland and South Carolina. The great organizers Webb and Fowle,
having about twenty years previously launched the General Grand Chapter of the
United States, endowed by their state Grand Encampment with more or less
authority, along with some Templars from New York, held a convention in
Philadelphia on June 11, 1816, where they met with delegates from Pennsylvania
and endeavoured to organize a United States Grand Encampment. Opposition
developed thereto on the part of the delegates from Pennsylvania, who refused to
concur in the adoption of a proposed constitution, preferring rather their own
ritual, their own customs, and their own powers of government, being influenced
largely by their connection with the Mother Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, to
which they were then and until 1857 subject. Unsuccessful in their efforts, but
still undaunted, Webb and Fowle stopped over in New York City on their way home
and there, within ten days, organized what is today the Grand Encampment Knights
Templar of the United States of America; adopted a constitution, carefully
prepared by Webb, which remained essentially unchanged until 1856; prepared a
roster of officers substantially the same as at present prevailing; and named
candidates for those offices from their two state jurisdictions, Webb and Fowle
wisely subordinating themselves to Governor Clinton, whose civil position, along
with his Masonic record and his powerful influence rendered him eminently fit to
act as Grand Master of the organization. It remained only for the Knights of
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and New York to ratify this action and make such
changes in the constitution of their different bodies as were thereby necessary.
During the thirty-six years following the formation of the
Grand Encampment but six additional Grand Commanderies were added to its roster,
a slow growth due solely to the persecution of the members of the Order for a
score of years following the Morgan Excitement. During the fifties, ten Grand
Commanderies were added to the list, when our great Civil War, along with its
disturbance of the general affairs of the nation, for many years delayed the
spread of the Order over the United States. Since that war its growth has been
healthy and normal, and today we have forty-seven Grand Commanderies in the
United States, with a total membership of over 368,000.
Outside of the United States, the activities of modern
Templarism are confined to the British nation, with whose Great Priories of
England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Canada, we are, by the Concordat of
1910, in fraternal relationship.
----o----
MASONIC HISTORY IN NEW MEXICO
This exceptionally
able article was written upon special request of TEIE BUILDER and is here
offered as a specimen of what might be done by the way of brief histories of
every state in the Union. Would not a volume made up of such sketches be of
great value? Our thanks go to Brother Walter who is now Vice President of the
First National Bank of Santa Fe, the same bank of which William W. Griffin, the
first Grand Master of New Mexico, was one time President; and also to Brother
Francis E. Lester, Past Grand Master of New Mexico, who recommended Brother
Walter as a suitable historian of New Mexico Freemasonry. The Southwest is a
great store of the most romantic Masonic history, a virgin mine of inspiration
and fact, awaiting development at the hands of Masonic writers.
IT WAS in 1831 that
Albert Pike, the noted Masonic author, visited Santa Fe. Very near the spot from
which he first viewed the city, rises the splendid Scottish Rite Cathedral, in
which the Consistory and other bodies make their home. In the collected poems of
Pike are a few verses which record the impression that the historic and ancient
city made upon the distinguished visitor. This is perhaps Santa Fe's first
connection with the history of Masonry.
However, ten years
later, in 1841,
we find reference to what appears to have
been an attempt to establish a lodge in Santa Fe. In an address delivered before
the Grand Lodge on May 13, 1901, Wm. G. Ritch, then Secretary and acting
Governor of New Mexico, refers to this attempt, which is based upon a reference
in the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Texas to the effect that a dispensation
was granted for the institution of a lodge at Santa Fe. Nothing further seems to
have come of the attempt, and it was not until
1847 that a military lodge was
instituted. In the archives of the Grand Lodge of Missouri we find the following
notation: "Missouri Military Lodge No.
86, Third Regiment, Missouri
Volunteers; dispensation issued June
12,1847
by John Ralls, Grand Master. Chartered
October 14, 1847;
closed with the Mexican War." Colonel Ralls
commanded one of the volunteer regimants from Missouri stationed at Santa Fo
after Colonel Price had been relieved by new levies. As was noted, he was also
Grand Master of the Masonic jurisdiction of Missouri. Lt. Col. H. P. Boyakin,
who served with the First Illinois Regiment, also stationed at Santa Fe, was a
craftsman who later was Master of a lodge.
Says Colonel R. E.
Twitchell in his "Leading Facts of New Mexican History," Vol. 5, page 315: "Of
the work of this lodge we are without information; there being no returns or
files among the archives from which to glean facts. And we have no further
evidence of its having existed, save that the lodge is referred to by name and
number in the minute book of Hardin Lodge No. 87 at Santa Fe, as having been
visited by the latter under date of October 26, 1847. We are thus able only to
speak of Missouri Military Lodge No. 86 as an existing lodge at Santa Fe,
apparently working regularly from some time in September, 1847, down to the
close of the service of the regiment a year later. That No. 86 did good work
there can be no doubt, since it was under the immediate fostering presence and
care of the Grand Master of the jurisdiction issuing its charter, and who no
doubt instituted the same. A second lodge contemporaneous with the latter as to
time and place bears the name of Hardin Lodge No. 87, A.F. & A.M. Of the latter,
there is the evidence of its existence, well known to the older members of
Montezuma Lodge No. 1.
This lodge had also
been organized under the authority of Grand Master John Ralls, its duration also
being limited to the service of the regiment. The minutes of Hardin Lodge show
work, especially in initiation, and the names of some of the old-timers are
preserved in the minutes of Montezuma Lodge No. 1. These lodges existed before
the instituting of any other Masonic organizations west of the Missouri. They
are the beginnings of Freemasonry in that immense domain lying between the
Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean, and between the British possessions and
the Republic of Mexico and the State of Texas. Quoting the same historian
further:
"These military lodges
go down in history as marking the first dawn of fraternity in an immensity of
area since developed into an empire of free states, each having its grand
jurisdiction, the peer of any other jurisdiction in Masonry the world over. And
thus Masonry in the great west kept step with the vanguard of civilization. We
must not forget that among the pioneers and early inspirations of modern
Masonry, the military lodge was an important agency in the planting of the Craft
far and wide."
However, these
military lodges were short lived, and it was not until the institution of
Montezuma Lodge on the 22nd day of August, 1851, that the history of permanent
Masonry in New Mexico begins. In those early days, the lodge room was the center
of civic and social activity for a wide domain. Trappers and scouts, pathfinders
and pioneers, made it their place of social gathering, and here we find Kit
Carson, Saint Vrain, military officers, federal and territorial officials,
mingling in social intercourse. The first death to be recorded by Montezuma
Lodge was that of Robert T. Brent, junior warden of the lodge, who was killed on
December 4, 1851, while crossing the Jornado de Muerto, or "Journey of Death."
He fell a victim to the Apaches and was buried by the lodge on December 23rd.
The legislative assembly granted a civil charter to Montezuma Lodge on February
6, 1854. Up to 1860, Montezuma Lodge was the sole Masonic organization within a
radius of almost a thousand miles, and its membership was drawn from far distant
communities and settlements. Says Col. Twitchell:
"The Masonic lodge in
those days became something more than a mere civic society. In the absence of
American women very generally during the first two decades of the American
occupation, there were no social centers, no places of amusement, no homes of
the American family, no attractive resort in which to while away an hour -
unless, forsooth we mention the Mexican baile, the gambling room, and the
saloon. Naturally members congregated at the Masonic lodge room. The Masonic
hall became the club room and social center of those who would avoid contact
with the dissipations of the country. The sole protestant church of the period,
indeed, had representatives on the ground - sometimes."
In the lodge room of
Montezuma Lodge in Santa Fe are preserved a number of the relics, including Kit
Carson's rifle, of those early days. The furniture and furnishings which were
brought from St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1852 over the Santa Fe Trail in wagons are
still in use, and on the walls are the portraits of several score of the first
members. It was not until 1855, that the Masonic Order gained further footing
west of the Missouri except in a few lodges in Oregon and California. It was in
1860 that Bent Lodge was insituted at Taos. Then followed lodges at Las Vegas,
Elizabethtown, Cimarron, Silver City, and Tiptonville. Vicissitudes of fate
resulted in the surrender of the charters of the lodges at Taos, Elizabethtown,
and Cimarron.
In 1877, the Grand
Lodge of New Mexico was instituted at Santa Fe by the representatives of
Montezuma, Chapman, and Aztec lodges. The first Grand Master was Wm. W. Griffin,
president of the First National Bank at Santa Fe. The Grand Royal Arch Chapter
was organized in 1898, the first Royal Arch chapter having been instituted in
Santa Fe in 1865. The Grand Commandery of the Knights Templar was organized in
1901. The Shrine was granted a charter in 1887, and has its temple at
Albuquerque.
The four bodies of the
Scottish Rite trace their beginnings to February 1st, 1883, when Santa Fe Lodge
of Perfection No. 1 was instituted under the direction of Charles Spaulding of
Topeka, Kansas, deputy of the Supreme Council. The two last surviving resident
members of the first session of the lodge, U.S. Senator Thomas B. Catron and Dr.
W. S. Harroun, died only recently. It was not until 1905 that the lodge became
active in conferring the degrees. It was then that Cony T. Brown, under the
direction of the late Col. Max Frost, deputy of the Supreme Council,
communicated the degrees from the fourth to the fourteenth upon a small class,
including Judge Richard H. Hanna, the present deputy of the Supreme Council for
New Mexico. Since then, the lodge has grown rapidly. In 1908, Aitlan Chapter,
Rose Croix No. 1, was instituted under the direction of Col. Frost. A few months
later in the same year, Coronado Council of Kadosh and New Mexico Consistory No.
1 were instituted.
The first reunion was
held in 1909, at which time the late James E. Richardson, Sovereign Grand
Commander, and many other distinguished Masons were present.
The Blue Lodge now
owns its own home on the south side of the beautiful plaza, which is also the
business center in Santa Fe. The Scottish Rite bodies have built a cathedral
that is monumental in character and unique among the Masonic buildings of the
United States. It is a replica in part of the Court of Lions of the Alhambra The
building is tinted a deep, rich red, and while complete in itself, yet is only
one unit of the great structure as it will finally appear. In addition to the
magnificent auditorium, it has a great banquet hall as well as ante-rooms and
social center, together with offices occupied by the permanent seeretary. The
stage of the auditorium is equipped with ninety drop curtains and complete
electrical apparatus for the production of brilliant lighting effects. Above the
proscenium arch is a mural painting representing Boabdil delivering the keys of
the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella. A great pipe organ has been installed,
and the Scottish Rite choir is famous throughout the southwest for its musical
renditions.
Taken all in all,
Masonry has played a very important part in the development of the southwest. It
gathered into its fold the men who were leaders in active affairs as well as in
science and the arts. Every large town now has its Masonic lodge, and each year
there are four or five pilgrimages and reunions at Santa Fe, where the degrees
up to and including the thirty-second are conferred with much beauty and
splendor. Membership runs into the thousands, and all of the various bodies are
flourishing in every respect. The future of the organization is sure to be a
brilliant one, and the impress its members are making upon the commonwealth and
its progress is marked.
----o----
EDITORIAL
FREEMASONRY AND POLITICAL REFORM
THE RADICAL and the
revolutionist are abroad in the land in such force as has not been seen for many
years. It was all to be expected, one may suppose, as a part of the inevitable
aftermath of the war during which trying period many men and women suffered
grievous wrongs; civilization itself was called in question; and multitudes were
given a sense of insecurity in the very ground under their feet. Such a
condition, maintained for some five years, was sure to breed a vast deal of
discontent and morose opposition to the scheme of things. Furthermore, in that
period of excitement - it has not yet passed away - minds worked at fever heat
and tongues were loosened. A great commotion of propaganda, discussion,
political diatribes, and general riotous redness is the consequence of it all.
Radicalism has
penetrated to the intellectual centers of the land, into books, and into
colleges and universities. A kind of modified bolshevism, watered down into a
more familiar phraseology, is being steadily preached in a great many college
recitation rooms by admired and intelligent men. In some of the most respectable
of our colleges - as the present writer learned from his own investigations in
some cases - there are from ten to twenty per cent of the members of the faculty
in avowed alliance with some one or more of the many "red" groups.
There is no need to be
greatly alarmed at all this, for ten per cent of all the college professors in
the land could not shake the Goddess of Liberty from her pedestal; but such
facts are set forth as indications and illustrations of a general condition
which is a justly considered source of alarm. It may even be said without fear
of exaggeration that in some form or other thousands and thousands of our
citizens are organized in direct opposition to the political principles and
ideals on which the United States government is organized.
These men and women
must be left free to ventilate their hostile opinions. The very Constitution
which they hate and seek to destroy guarantees them that right. Neither should
force be used in order to put a stop to their dangerous teachings. The history
of the whole world, from Adam down, offers pretty convincing proof that the use
of force is the least successful of all antitoxins where political poisoning is
feared. The men and women who search all the histories for arguments to show
that we are an enslaved people unjustly governed, and that America does not
spell liberty, equality, and fraternity but rather capitalistic greed and
tyranny; who work day and night to devise arguments to convince our citizens
that such is the case; and who try in one way or another to inoculate our young
men with their heresies,these men and women must be met by reason, persuasion,
facts and argument. Reason must be met by reason, argument by argument, thought
by thought. In no other wise can they be truly defeated. Those who believe in
Americanism, intelligently and without bigotry or ignorant jingoism, must
organize themselves and carry on their own propaganda, and evermore stand ready
to win their victories anew.
It is coming more and
more to be felt that Freemasonry cannot wholly remain aloof from the defense of
a genuine, well considered, and intelligent Americanism. A number of our
representative journals have frankly said as much, and in some cases have
published notable calls to the Fraternity in order to awaken it from its sleep
and to make it know that the day is at hand, and that it is high time that it
should buckle on its armor. Grand Masters have in their turn delivered their own
minds to the same effect, and already a number of organizations are coming into
existence wherethrough the Fraternity, rapidly approaching the three million
mark in its membership, may deliver its stupendous power into the hands of
Americanism.
Freemasonry is not
opposed to reform. On the contrary it is itself the mother of many reforms, and
hundreds of the men who have wrought so successfully to improve and change the
political scheme of things have been - and are - active and reputable Masons.
Grand Lodges themselves, even, have done many things by way of political and
social change.
But reform and
revolution are not the same thing. The reformer believes that the fundamentals
of our social and political system are sound and right, but that details of its
operation should here and there be remedied. He believes in the wage system, for
illustration, but strives to have wages increased and hours of labor cut down;
he believes in representative government but is in favor of electing senators by
popular ballot; he believes in private property but also thinks that an income
tax is just and necessary; and so on and so on. A man may be ever so much of a
reformer, as Henry Demarest Lloyd was, as Lincoln was, and as Roosevelt was, and
at the same time have the most fervent belief in the principles anal general
outlines of the American scheme of government.
But your revolutionist
is very different. He disagrees with the very scheme itself, and would tear up
the principles and fundamentals. He is not out to reform the wage system but to
destroy it; he is not wishing to levy a tax on incomes, he would do away with
the whole principle of private incomes; he would not waste time protecting
property in land, he would sweep the whole system of private ownership in land
into the discard; he would not deign to work for the direct election of United
States senators, he would do away with the senate; he does not care a straw for
the amendments to the Constitution that may be proposed, because he is out to
undo the Constitution altogether, and to set up in its place some form of
commuxusm, or socialism, or syndicalism, or what not.
The position which
this Fraternity occupies is out in the open, and perfectly justifiable. It
stands ready to become the friend and aider of any reform, if that reform
appears wise and just, as is illustrated by the universal Masonic support of the
Towner-Sterling Bill: but it at the same time stands like a wall of adamant in
opposition to any and every scheme which seeks to overthrow the American system
in order to replace it by something different.
----o----
ON THE QUESTION OF SOCIAL CLUBS
Ever and anon ye
editor receives a letter - usually from a brother grown gray in the Craft, to
judge by tone and handwriting, and therefore to be received with respect - to
protest against the existence of social clubs inside the Fraternity. These
clubs, so it is alleged, contravene our laws and contradict our spirit.
Is this true? Not
unless ye editor has been reading the histories of Masonry to no avail. The fact
is that the earlier lodges, those that existed in the days when speculative
Masonry was aborning, were anything but the solemn conclaves of serious men that
we often picture them; for they usually met in taverns and enjoyed such
privileges as went therewith, and they were a joyous happy lot, who made a
practice of bringing their tables of meat and drink into the lodge room with
them. They sang, and often they roistered, and many times their wit and their
humor flowed about them like wild streams. There was not, and they knew there
was not, any contradiction between all that and the spirit and principles of
Freemasonry, for Freemasonry is not a funereal, sour faced thing at all, but
full of life and gladness and youth. It must needs be serious but it does not
have to be solemn; it is well for it to remain sober but it does not have to
grow sour. And if young men wish to gather in a dining room and have a feed
together, and a few songs, and a list of humorous toasts, where is the harm?
Also, where are the
laws that are contravened? or the principles that are violated ? As the old
gentleman said in the humorous story, "there ain't any sich thing." Whether a
social club in a Masonic Temple is a oood thing or a bad thing depends entirely
upon local conditions. Such matters have no place in the body of Masonic
principle whatsoever, and are left aside as matters of wish, expediency, and
individual desire.
----o----
THE HOUR GLASS
BY BRO. FRANK C. HICKMAN, MICIIIGAN
Behold the sand, how swift it goes;
Likewise our lives draw to a close.
We can't without astonishment,
Behold these particles take vent
But that we've much to think anent.
How almost imperceptibly
They pass on to eternity;
And in an hour none remain,
They have exhausted to the grain:
"Thus wasteth man," but not in vain.
To-day his leaves of hope will sprout,
To-morrow blossoms thick come out.
He bears his blushing honors on, -
To goals he feels are fairly won,
But disappointment laughs anon.
For next day comes a frost and nips
The shoot, prolific to its tips,
And while he glorys in his worth,
Like Autumn leaves he falls from mirth,
To help enrich our Mother Earth.
----o----
THE LIBRARY
ARTICLES OF INTEREST TO THE MASONIC STUDENT IN HASTINGS'
"ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS"
WITH THE RECENT
appearance of the twelfth volume this magnificent reference work has been
brought to completion, with the exception of the Index volume which is now in
course of preparation. There is nothing like it anywhere in the language in its
own field, and it easily places Dr. Hastings on the throne as the greatest
editor of his generation. The work is sold by the publishers direct, acid may be
purchased by the impecunious - which includes most of us - on the payment plan.
For terms and conditions address the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, 5th
Avenue and 48th Street, New York, N. Y.
The scope of the work
is adequately described by the title except that there is a great deal more
material on folklore, anthropology, magic and all that than one might expect.
One of the best features of all is the adequate and quite modern bibliography
included with each article; this feature in itself malies the set almost
indispensable to students and serious readers. Each volume contains brief notes
about the authors of the various articles; a table of cross references and a
list of abbreviations. Unlike other encyclopedias each important article has
been broken into sections and each section allocated to an author of its own;
for example, the excellent article - a treatise in length - on Symbolism is
divided as follows, with the authors appearing in brackets - where learned
writers so frequently find themselves:
SYMBOLISM:
Christian (J. Gamble),
p. 134.
Greek and Roman (P.
Gardner), p. 139.
Jewish (I. Abrahams), p. 143.
Muslim (D. S. Margoliouth), p. 145.
Hindu (A. S. Geden), p. 141.
Semitic (M. H. Farbridge), p. 146.
Very frequently each
of these authors contributes a bibliography on his own section, all of which,
when added to the general bibliography at the end of the article, furnishes one
with as complete a list of books as any but the specialist will ever need.
Ye editor has found
this encyclopedia so useful in steering the courses of THE BUILDER that he has
kept it ever at his elbow, and it is this use of it that has suggested to him
the value of publishing in these pages a list of the articles on subjects about
which Masonic students so often find themselves interested.
VOLUME I
Absolute, p. 40; this is a treatment of one of the
philosophical conceptions of God.
AEgean religion, p. 141; much about Greek ritual, etc.
Affirmation, p. 157; deals with oaths, etc.
Agnosticism, p. 215; helpful in the study of Atheism.
Ahriman, p 237; Persian god of darkness.
Albigneses, p. 277; one of the heretical sects, persecuted
by the Roman Catholic Church. Some believe that traces from the Albigenses
remain in Freemasonry. See "New Light on the Renaissance," by Harold Bayley.
Alchemy, p. 287.
Allegory, p. 327.
Altar, p. 333; covers usages in all countries. A very
complete article.
Altruism, p. 355; scientific study of charity and
brotherhood.
Analogy, p. 415; helpful in the study of symbolism.
Anarchy, p. 419.
Annointing, p. 549.
Anti-Semitism, p. 593.
Appollonius of Tyana, p. 609.
Apostolic Succession, p. 633; thorough study of the rise of
the Papacy.
Architecture, p. 677; deals principally with religious
architecture, and is developed in twenty-four parts.
Ark, p. 791.
VOLUME II
Arthur, Arthurian Cycle, p. 1; deals with the Holy Grail
legends.
Assassins, p. 138.
Atheism, p. 173; studied in ten different varieties.
Avesta, p. 266; the sacred book of Zoroastrianism.
Bacon, Francis, p. 321.
Badges, p. 325.
Basilidies, p. 426; one of the founders of Gnosticism.
Benevolence, p. 474.
Bhagavad-Gita, p. 535; one of the sacred books of India.
Bible, p. 562: a treatise of more than fifty closely
printed pages.
Binding and Loosing, p. 618; a careful examination of one
of the fundamental claims of the Papacy.
Boehme, p. 778; one of the great mystics.
Book of Life, p. 792, has much to say about astrology.
Brahmanism, p. 799.
Branches and Twigs, p. 831; side lights on ritualistic
customs.
Brotherhood, p. 857.
Brotherly Love, p. 872.
Bruno, p. 878; one of the martyrs of free thought.
Buddha, p. 881.
Buddhism, p. 887.
Bull-roarer, p. 889; one of the conspicuous devices used in
primitive ritual.
Bulls and briefs, p. 891; deals with papal bulls from the
earliest time.
VOLUME III
Calendar, p. 61; indispensable to the student of astrology.
Canaanites, p. 176; furnishes the historical background for
King Solomon's time.
Casuistry, p. 239; belongs to the study of ethics.
Catholicism, p. 258.
Character, p. 364.
Charity, p. 373.
Charms and Amulets, p. 392.
Cherub, Cherubim; p. 508.
China, p. 549; religion and ethics in that country.
Chivalry, p. 565; has much to say about the Knights
Templar.
Christianity, p. 679.
Chronology, p. 610.
Church, p. 616.
Circumambulation, p. 657; a wonderful article written by a
noted Masonic scholar, Count Goblet d'Alviella.
Clericalism and anti-clericalism, p . 689 .
Coins and medals, p. 699.
Commemoration of the dead, p. 716.
Communism, p. 776; useful in the study of Socialism.
Concordat, p. 800; necessary in the study of Freemasonry in
France.
Conditional immortality, p. 822; deals with a peculiar
conception of everlasting life.
Confession, p. 825; tells the story of how the confessional
came into use by the Roman Catholic Church. A very long article. It is
principally devoted to the various creeds of Christendom and contains a complete
and valuable table of Confessions of Faith.
VOLUME IV
Conscience, p. 30.
Consistency, p. 65; belongs to ethical theory.
Cooperation, p. 112.
Corners, p. 119; useful in the study of the Northeast
Corner.
Cosmogony and Cosmology, p. 125; a treatise of more than 50
pages.
Councils and Synods, p. 179; necessary to an understanding
of the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
Creeds and Articles, p. 231; should be read along with the
articles on Confessions.
Crimes and Punishments, p. 248.
Criminology, p. 305.
Cross, p. 324: every Masonic student should read this
article.
Crusades, p. 345; all about the Knights Templar, etc.
Culdees, p. 357; some writers have tried to trace
Freemasonry back to Culdees.
Cursing and Blessing, p. 367; useful in cations and Oaths.
Death and Disposal of the Dead, p. 411; a great treatise of
one hundred pages covering all countries.
Deism, p. 533; one of the forms of the theory of God.
Deluge, p. 545; useful in a study of Noachite Masonry.
Door, p. 846; read this article in connection with the
study of the Ceremony of Entrance.
VOLUME V
Dress, p. 40; an interesting subject of costume and dress
symbolism.
Druids, p. 82; it was once the custom to credit the Druids
with the establishment of Freemasonry.
Duty, p. 119.
Education, p. 166; as developed among twelve peoples.
Egoism, p. 231.
Egyptian Religion, p. 236; this was written by W. M.
Flinders Petrie.
Enlightenment, The, p. 310; an account of the rise of
modern thought.
Equity, p. 357.
Error and Truth, p. 366.
Essenes, p. 396; written by James Moffatt.
Eternity, p. 401.
Ethical Discipline, p. 405.
Ethics, p. 414.
Ethics and Morality, p. 436: eighty-five pages.
Ethnology, p. 522; gives scientific classification of
peoples.
Fairy, p. 678; contains much folklore material.
Faith, p. 689.
Feet-Washing, p. 814; consult this when you study Maundy
Thursday.
Female Principle, p. 827; useful in studying the Lesser
Lights.
Festival and Fasts, p. 836.
VOLUME Vl
Fire, Fire-gods, p. 26.
First Cause, p. 36; philosophical discussion of the idea of
God.
Fleece, p. 51; useful in studying the Golden Fleece.
Folklore, p. 57.
Foundation-Rites, p. 109; deals with custom of laying
cornerstones, etc. Freemasonry, p. 118; two and one-half pages by E. L. Hawkins.
Free-Thought, p. 120.
Friendly Societies, p. 127.
Friendship, p. 131.
Gabars, p. 147; deals with one group of Zoroastrians.
Gallicanism, p. 156.
Guilds, p. 215; the latter half of this article deals with
the Roman Collegia. Girdle, p. 226; important for studying the Cable Tow.
Gnosticism, p. 231; the Knights Templar were accused of
Gnosticism.
God, p. 243; sixty-seven pages.
Golden Rule, p. 310.
Good and Evil, p. 318.
Government, p. 358.
Graeco-Egyptian Religion, 374; has much to say about the
Mysteries.
Grail, The Holy, p. 385.
Greece, Greek Religion, p. 392.
Greek Orthodox Church, p. 425.
Hand, p. 482; the symbolical and ritualistic use of the
hand.
Happiness, p. 510.
Head, p. 532; in folklore, symbolism, etc.
Heart, p. 556; in symbolism and religion.
Heresy, p. 614; treats of some of the heretical sects of
the Middle Ages. Hermes Trismegistus, p. 686.
Holiness, p. 731; interesting to the Royal Arch Mason.
Hope, p. 779; one of the Theological Virtues.
Horn, p. 791; its use in symbolism and magic.
Huguenots, p. 823.
Hyksos, p. 889; a chapter in Egyptian History.
VOLUME Vll
Idealism, p. 89.
Ignorance, p. 103.
Immortality, p. 172.
Incense, p. 201; a Scottish Rite student will be interested
in this.
India, p. 209; religions, cults, etc.
Infallibility, p. 256; gives the historical background of
the doctrine of papal infallibility.
Infinity, p. 282.
Initiation, p. 314, a long treatise on initiation among
Buddhists, Greeks, Hindus, Jews, Parsees, Romans and Tibetans. Introductory
section is written by Count Goblet d'Alviella.
Inquisition, p. 330; its history and doctrines.
Invocation, p. 407.
Ishtar, p. 428.
Isis, p. 434.
Israel, p. 439.
Jesuits, p. 500; includes an exceptionally complete
bibliography.
Jesus Christ, p. 505.
Josephus, p. 569.
Judaism, p. 581; a long treatise by Herbert Loewe.
Kabbala, p. 622; also written by Herbert Loewe.
Kabeiroi, p. 628; one of the ancient mysteries. Often
spelled "Kabiri."
Karma, p. 673.
Kingdom of God, p. 732.
Kneeling, p. 745.
Landmarks and Boundaries, p. 789.
VOLUME Vlll
Life and Death, p. 1.
Light and Darkness, p. 27.
Litany, p. 78.
Locks and Keys, p. 120; treats of their symbolical uses
Loyalty, p. 183.
Loyola, p. 188; founder of the Jesuits.
Luther, p. 198.
Magi, p. 242.
Magic, p. 245; a treatise of seventy-five pages.
Magical Circle, p. 321.
Mahabharata, p. 325; one of the sacred books of India.
Maimonides, p. 340; greatest Jewish philosopher of the
Middle Ages.
Mana, p. 375; important in the study of magic.
Manichaeism, p. 394; the Abbey Barruel traced Freemasonry
back to Manichaeism, a wild theory.
Massebhah, p. 487; sacred stones and pillars of the Old
Testament.
Materialism, p. 488.
May, Midsummer, p. 601; important for the study of St.
John's Day.
Mendelssohn, p. 549; has much to say about Brother Lessing.
Merlin, p. 565; deals with the King Arthur legends.
Messiah, p. 570.
Metals and Minerals, p. 688; throws light on one of the
famous incidents of the First Degree.
Miracle-Plays, Mysteries, Moralities, p. 690; important in
the study of the Hiram Abiff drama.
Mithraism, p. 752.
Modernism, p. 763; deals with the attempt to establish
modern thought inside Roman Catholic theology.
Molinism, p. 774; the teachings of Molinos, one of the
great mystics.
Monotheism, p. 817; the doctrine of one God.
Mother of the Gods, p. 847.
Mouth, p. 869; as used in ritual and symbolism.
Muhammad, p. 871; frequently spelled Mohammed: founder of
Mohammedanism. Written by D. S. Margoliouth.
Muhammadanism, P. 880.
VOLUME IX
Music, p. 5.
Mysteries, p. 70.
Mysticism, p. 83.
Mythology, p. 117.
Names, p. 130; a thorough treatise of forty-six pages.
Name of God, p. 177; deals with the Tetragrammaton.
Naturalism, p. 195.
Neo-Platonism, p. 307.
Neo-Pythagoreanism, p. 319.
Numbers, p. 406; in ritual, magic, symbolism, etc.
Oath, p. 430.
Occultism, p. 444.
Oddfellows, p. 448.
Office, The Holy, p. 460; about the inquisition.
Om, p. 490; one of the sacred names of Deity in India.
Odeal, p. 507.
Ormazd, p. 566.
Pantheism, p. 609.
Papacy, p. 620.
Parsis, p. 640; about the Persian Zoroastrians.
Pacal, p. 652; famous for his attack on the Jesuits.
Persecution, p. 742.
Phallism, p. 815: on sex worship.
Philanthropy, p. 837.
Phrenology. p. 897.
VOLUME X
Pistis Sophia, p. 45.
Pleroma, p. 62.
Points of the Compass, p. 73; a thorough treatise, and
exceedingly valuable to the Masonic student. Contains much about orientation.
Poles and Posts, p. 91; interesting in connection with the
Great Pillars.
Polytheism, p. 112; the doctrine of many gods.
Prayer, p. 154.
Prayer Wheels, p. 218; written by Count Goblet d'Alviella.
Pre-Existence, p. 236.
Priest, Priesthood, p. 278.
Processions and Dances, p. 356
Profanity, p. 378.
Protestantism, p. 410.
Purification, p. 455; useful in a study of Masonic
lustration.
Pythagoras, p. 520.
Quietism, p. 533; one of the schools of mysticism.
Kur'an, p. 538; usually spelled Koran.
Reformation, The, p. 609.
Regalia, p. 632.
Regeneration, p. 639; read this in connection with the
Raising of Hiram Abiff. Religion, p. 662.
Religious Orders, p. 693; useful to a student of the higher
grades. Righteousness, p. 777.
Roman religion, p. 820; the religion of the ancient Roman
people. Wlitten by W. Warde Fowler.
Rosicrucians, p. 856; written by Arthur C. Jones.
Russian Church, p. 867.
VOLUME Xl
Salutations, p. 104.
Samaritans, p. 161.
Satanism, p. 203.
Secret Societies, p. 287; a treatise in twenty pages and
six parts.
Serpent Worship, p. 399.
Seven Sleepers, p. 428; an old legend sometimes found in
Masonic books. Seven Virtues, p. 430; contains a section on the Cardinal
Virtues.
Sects, p. 432.
Shekinah, p. 450.
Shoes and Sandals, p. 474.
Sibylline Oracles, p. 496.
Simon Magus, p. 514.
Sin, p. 528.
Sky and Sky Gods, p. 580.
Socialism, p. 634.
Soul, p. 725.
Staff, p. 811.
Stones, p. 864.
Strangers. p. 883.
VOLUME Xll
Sufis, p. 10; a school of Mohammedan mystics.
Summun Bonum, p. 44; the doctrine of the greatest good.
Sun, Moon and Stars, p. 48; a wonderful treatise of
50pages.
Superstition, p. 120.
Swedenborg, p. 129.
Symbolism, p. 134.
Tabu, p. 181; often spelled "Taboo."
Tammuz, p. 187; an Asiatic nature god.
Taoism, p. 197; one of the three great religions of China.
Tatuing, p. 208; usually spelled "tattooing."
Temples, p. 236.
Thags, p. 259; a secret society of criminals which existed
a long time in India. Theism, p. 261; the philosophical doctrine of the personal
God.
Theology, p. 293.
Theosophical Society, p. 300.
Therapeutae, p. 315; see THE BUILDER, December, 1921 page
365.
Time, p. 334.
Token, p. 357.
Toleration, p. 360.
Totemism, p. 393.
Tradition, p. 411.
Transmigration, p. 425: an article in eight parts.
Trees and Plants, p. 448; read this in connection with the
Acacia.
Trinity, p. 458; the
Christian doctrine of God.
Typology, p. 600; read
this in connection with the article on symbolism.
Under world, p. 516.
Universality, p. 535.
Upanisads, p. 640; a
Sanskrit treatise much venerated in India
Vampire, p. 589,
Brother Dudley Wright's book on this subject is listed in the bibliography.
Vedanta, p. 597; the
most widespread of the six philosophical systems of the Brahmans.
Vedic Religion, p.
601; a religion founded on the Vedas.
Voltaire, p. 627.
Vows, p. 644.
Waldenses, p. 663.
Water, Water Gods, p.
704.
Western Church, p.
727; "The epithet 'Western' differentiates the Church of the West, or Roman
Catholic Church, from that of the East, known as the Holy Orthodox Church."
Wisdom, p. 742.
Word, p. 749.
Worship, p. 752.
Yoga, p. 831.
Zionism, p. 865.
Zohar, p. 868; the
greatest of the Kabbalistical books.
Zoroastrianism, p.
862.
----o----
PUBLICATIONS WANTED, FOR SALE, AND EXCHANGE
We are constantly
receiving inquiries from readers as to where they may obtain publications on
Freemasonry and kindred subjects not offered in our Monthly Book List. Most of
the books thus sought are out of print, but it may happen that other readers,
owning copies, may be willing to dispose of the same. Therefore this column is
set aside each month for such a service. And it is also hoped - and expected -
that readers possessing very old or rare Masonic works will communicate the fact
to THE BUILDER in behalf of general information.
Postoffice addresses
are here given in order that those buying and selling may communicate directly
with each other. Brethren are asked to cancel notices as soon as their wants are
supplied.
In no case does THE
BUILDER assume any responsibility whatsoever for publications thus bought, sold,
exchanged or borrowed.
WANTED
By Bro. D. D.
Berolzheimer, 1 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.: "Realities of Masonry," Blake,
1879; "Records of the Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masons," Condor, 1894;
"Masonic Bibliography," Carson, 1873; "Origin of Freemasonry," Paine, 1811.
By Bro. G. Alfred
Lawrence, 142 West 86th St., New York, N. Y.: Proceedings of the Scottish Rite
Body founded by Joseph Cerneau in New York City in 1808, of which De Witt
Clinton was the first Grand Commander, and which body became united, in 1867,
with the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, A. & A. S. R.
Also Proceedings of the Supreme Council founded in New York by De La Motta, in
1813, by authority of the Southern Supreme Council, of which he was Grand
Treasurer-General, these Proceedings from 1813 to 1860.
By Bro. Frank R.
Johnson, 306 East 10th St., Kansas City, Mo.: "The Year Book," published by the
Masonic Constellations, containing the History of the Grand Council, R. & S. M.,
of Missouri.
By Brother Silas H.
Shepherd, Hartland, Wisconsin: "Catalogue of the Masonic Library of Samuel
Lawrence"; "Second Edition of Preston's Ellustrations of Masonry"; "The Source
of Measures," by J. Ralston Skinner 1875, or second edition 1894"Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum," volumes I to XI, inclusive; "Masonic Facts and Fictions," by Henry
Sadler; "The Kabbalah Unveiled," by S. L. MacGregor Mathers.
By Bro. Ernest E.
Ford, 305 South Wilson Avenue, Alhambra, California: Ars Quatuor Coronatorum,
volumes 3, 6 and 7, with St. John's Cards, also St. John's Cards for volumes 4
and 6; "Masonic Review," early volumes; "Voice of Masonry," early volumes;
Transactions Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction for the years 1882 and 1886;
Original Proceedings of The General Grand Encampment linights Templar for the
years 1826 and 1835.
By Bro. George A.
Lanzarotti, Casilla 126, Rancagua, Chile: All kinds of Masonic literature in
Spanish. Write first quoting prices.
By Brother L. Rask, 14
Alvey St., Schenectady, N. Y.: "Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists," by E.
A. Hitchcock, Janesville, N. Y., about 1865; "Secret Societies of all Ages,"
Heckethorn; "Lost Language of Symbology," by Harold Bayley, published by
Lippincott; "Sacred Hermeneutics," by Davidson, Edinburgh, 1843; "Solar System
of the Ancients Discovered," by J. Wilson, published by Longmans Co., London,
1856; "The Alphabet," by Isaac Taylor, Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co., 1883, or the
edition of 1899 published by Scribners, New York; "Anacalypsis," by Geodfrey
Higgins, 1836, published by Green & Longmans, London; "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum,"
any volume or volumes.
By Bro. J. H. Tatsch,
Union Bank & Trust Co., Los Angeles, Calif.: Fascilus 2, "Cementaria Hibernica,"
by Chetwode Crawley; Volumes 1, 2, 5 and 8, Quatuor Coronati Antigrapha; "Some
Memorials of Globe Lodge No. 23," Henry Sadler; "Constitutions of the
Freemasons," Hughan, 1869; "Numerical and Medallic Register of Lodges," Hughan,
1878; "History of the Appolo Lodge and the R. A., York," Hughan, 1894; any items
on AntiMasonry, especially tracts, handbills, posters, old newspapers, almanacs,
etc., relating to Morgan incident, 1826-1840, and recurrence of same from 1870
to 1885.
FOR SALE
By Bro. J. H. Tatsch,
Union Bank & Trust Co., Los Angeles, Calif.: Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Volumes 6
to 26, in parts as issued, with St. John Cards; "Masonic Reprints and
Revelations," Sadler; "The Natural History of Staffordshire," Dr. Robert Plot,
1686, folio; "The History of Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould, Yorston edition,
4 volumes; "History of Freemasonry in Europe," Emmanuel Rebold, 1867; "Bibliographie
der Freimaurerischen Literatur," August Wolfsteig, 1911-13, two volumes and
register, paper, as issued; "History of Freemasonry," Mackey, 7 volumes;
"History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders," Hughan and Stillson; facsimile
engraving Picard's "Les Francmassons," 1735, fine copy.
By Brother A. A.
Burnand, 690 South Bronson Ave., Los Angeles, California: Various Masonic
publications including such as a complete set of "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum";
"History of Freemasonry in Scotland," by D. Murray Lyon, (original edition);
Thomas Dunckerley, Laurence Dermott, etc.
By Brother Frank R.
Johnson, 306 East 10th St., Kansas City, Mo.: "History of Freemasonry,"
Mitchell, 2 volumes, sheep; "History of Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould, 4
volumes, cloth, in good condition; "History of Freemasonry," Albert G. Mackey, 7
volumes, linen cloth, new; Addison's "Knights Templar," Macoy, 1 volume, cloth;
"Museum of Antiquity," Yaggy, 1 volume, morocco; "History and Cyclopedia of
Freemasonry," Macoy and Oliver, new, full morocco. Also miscellaneous books.
----o----
PUBLIC SCHOOL NUMBER OF "THE BUILDER"
The August issue of
THE BUILDER will be a PUBLIC SCHOOL NUMBER. Features of this number will be a
symposium of opinion of the Public School question by a majority of the Grand
Masters of the United States and leading articles by Brother Horace M. Towner,
father of the Sterling-Towner Bill, Brother Samuel Gompers, President of the
American Federation of Labor, and Brother William F. Russell, Dean of Education,
University of Iowa. Tell your Masonic friends about this issue.
----o----
THE QUESTION BOX
THE BUILDER is an open
forum for free and fraternal discussion. Each of its contributors writes under
his own name, and is responsible for his own opinions. Believing that a unity of
spirit is better than a uniformity of opinion, the Research Society, as such,
does not champion any one school of Masonic thought as over against another, but
offers to all alike a medium for fellowship and instruction, leaving each to
stand or fall by its own merits.
The Question Box and
Correspondence Column are open to all members of the Society at all times.
Questions of any nature on Masonic subjects are earnestly invited from our
members, particularly those connected with lodges or study clubs which are
following our "Bulletin Course of Masonic Study." When requested, questions will
be answered promptly by mail before publication in this department.
THE JESUIT'S OATHS
From paragraphs in
various numbers of THE BUILDER I have gathered that you do not wish to overdo
the subject of Roman Catholics and their ways, nevertheless I am writing to ask
of you as a favor that you will furnish me with the oaths that are administered
to Jesuits. Please maks sure to give me the legitimate oath,not some wild thing
published on hearsay. I shall thank you very much. D. L. K., Ohio.
Jesuit oaths are found
recorded in the Constitutionis Societatis Jesu, Part V, chapters 3 and 4. It
would also be well for you to consult "The History of the Jeeuits," by Nicolini,
Bohn Edition, 1854, pp. 47-52. According to the Jesuits' own laws the first oath
is administered to the individual after he has passed a novitiate of two years;
it is the oath that makes him a "student," or "scholastic." It is here given in
full:
"Almighty everlasting
God! I, N. N., although most unworthy in thy divine sight, yet relying on thy
infinite pity and compassion, and impelled by the desire of serving thee, vow,
in the presence of the most Holy Virgin Mary and thy universal court of heaven,
perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience in the Society of Jesus to thy divine
Majesty; and I promise to enter the same society, and live in it perpetually,
understanding all things according to the Constitution of the Society itself. Of
thy boundless goodness and mercy through the blood of Jesus Christ I hereby pray
that thou wilt deign to accept this sacrifice (holocaustum) in the odor of
sweetness; and as thou hast granted the desiring and offering of this, so wilt
thou give thy abundant grape for the fulfillment."
After from eight to
fifteen years of labor as a "scholastic" the Jesuit passes on to the grade of
"Coadjutor," and accordingly takes the oath that follows:
"I, N. N., promise to
Almighty God before his Virgin Mother and the whole court of heaven, and to
thee, Reverend Father, President-General of the Society of Jesus, holding the
place of God, and to thy successors, or to thee Reverend Father, in the place of
the President-General of the Society of Jesus, and to his successors, holding
the place of God, perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience, and according to
it (i. e., the obedience) special care in the education of boys, according to
the mode set down in the Apostolic Letters and in the Constitutions of the said
Society."
Such vows are called
"simple," or "dispensable," and one who has taken them may, for sufficient
cause, leave the Order; not so with the next vow, which is called the vow of the
"professed"; it is binding for life. Those who have taken this obligation
constitute the fourth class and are called "professi." They are the real
Jesuits.
"I, N. N., make
profession and promise to Almighty God, before his Virgin Mother and the
universal court of heaven and all standing by, and to thee, Reverend Father,
President-General of the Society of Jesus, holding the place of God, and to thy
successors or to thee, Reverend Father, Vice-President-General of the Society
of Jesus, and to his successors holding the place of God, perpetual poverty,
chastity, and obedience, and according to it peculiar care for the instruction
of children, according to the method of living contained in the Apostolic
Letters of the Society of Jesus and in its Constitutions. In addition I promise
special obedience to the chief Pontiff in regard to missions, so far as may be
contained in the same Apostolic Letters and Constitutions."
In some cases a
"professed" is not compelled to take the vow covering missions, but all must
take in addition to the above the following oath. The first part of this last
oath repeats much of the one preceding and is omitted to save space:
"I, N. N., promise
that I shall never for any reason do or consent that what is ordained about
poverty in the Constitution of the Society shall be changed, unless when from
just cause of things impelling poverty should seem to be better restricted.
Further, I promise that I shall never by any act or pretense even indirectly
seek or move for any honor or dignity of the Society. Further, I promise that I
shall never care for nor seek any honor or dignity outside of the Society, nor
consent to my election, unless compelled by obedience to him who can enjoin me
under penalty of sin. Besides, if I should know of anyone who cares for or seeks
the aforesaid honors, I promise to divulge him and the whole case to the Society
or the President. In addition, I promise, if it should ever happen that for some
reason I should be advanced to be president (or bishop) of any church, for the
care which I owe to the salvation of my soul and to the right administration of
the matter imposed upon me, the President-General of the Society having for me
in that place and number, that I shall never refuse to hear the counsel which he
or any of the Society whom he may substitute for himself deigns to give me. I
promise always to yield to counsels of this kind if I judge them better than
those which come to my own mind understanding everything according to the
Constitutions and declarations of the Society of Jesus."
* * *
ABOUT THE "LOST WORD"
I would like to get a
book or two on The Lost Word. If you know of such editions let me know. I once
saw a reference to a book entitled The Lost Word Found by Dr. Buck. Is this book
available? R.E.M., Texas.
You might be able to
find a copy of Dr. Buck's book through any good second hand book store, but the
volume would now be of little value, because it is a presentation of the claims
of TK, and TK's claims, as you know, collapsed. If you have access to the books
you will find in the two volumes of A. E. Waite's The Secret Tradition in
Freemasonry many references to the doctrine of the Lost Word which, if you will
consider them in their totality, furnish a complete account of the matter. In
THE BUILDER for February 1915 you will find the subject dealt with by W.F. Kuhn.
In November of the same year, on page 271, you will find quite a lengthy article
on The Ineffable Name by George W. Warvelle. THE BUILDER for June 1916 contains
an article by A. E. Waite in which he briefly summarizes the legend. In an
article on The Legendary Origin of Freemasonry, on page 297 of the issue for
November 1919, Dudley Wright deals with the subject in a few paragraphs. A more
extended treatment of the subject will be found in the Correspondence Circle
Bulletin sections of THE BUILDER for February and for May of 1920, especially
the latter, in which the writings of many men are summarized. Mackey's
Encyclopedia contains a short article entitled "Lost Word." Albert Pike's
"Morals and Dogma" may be consulted to advantage, as may also any good treatment
of the Kabbala. In looking through books on this subject always be sure to
consult all references to "The Tetragrammaton" and "The Letter 'G"' as well to
"The Lost Word."
* * *
A GUIDE TO ROGER BACON
l have occasion to
prepare a paper on Roger Bacon ("Roger," you will note, not "Francis") and I
should like to be referred to something simple and brief, as I am always hard
put to find time to read. G. H., New York.
For your purpose it
would be difficult to find anything better than The Open Court magazine for
August, 1914. The entire number is devoted to Roger Bacon and contains articles
on Roger Bacon by Paul Carus; Biography of Roger Bacon; The Two Bacons, by
Ernest Duhring; Roger Bacon the Philosopher by Alfred H. Lloyd; Roger Bacon as a
Scientist, by Karl E. Guthe; and Roger Bacon, Logician and Mathematician, by
Philip E. B. Jourdain. You will find everything you need inside the compass of
these various articles.
* * *
CHURCH AFFILIATIONS OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
I have been requested
by our Study Club leader to report to our Club what are the church affiliations
of the members of the U. S. Congress. I have not been able to find the infor
nation anywhere; can you furnish it to me? S.P.Y., Indiana.
The Methodist Church
made an investigation of the subject with the following results:
Out of a total of 435
members of congress 24 are non-members, and church affiliation of 98 could not
be ascertained. The following are the church affiliations:
United Brethren,
Mormon, Independent, Mennonite, Dutch Reformed, Evangelical have one member
each. There are two Universalists. There are three members of the Quaker church
and three of the Jewish church. Five Unitarians, 10 Disciples, 10 Lutherans, 11
Christians, 18 Catholics, 23 Congregationalists, 35 Episcopalians, 29 Baptists,
56 Presbyterians and 99 Methodists.
In the senate the
survey showed that out of a total of 96 senators the church affiliation of 23
was unknown and only four were non-members. There was one Protestant
Episcopalian, one Christian. The Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, Unitarians and
Mormans all have two members each. There are 6 Catholics and 6 Baptists, 7
Congregationalists, 11 Presbyterians, 12 Episcopalians and 17 Methodists.
* * *
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE NILE
Will you kindly
furnish me with some information about the woman's organization known as The
Daughters of the Nile ?
J.L.K., Idaho.
The above query was
referred to Mrs. Edith E. Gattis, Supreme Queen of the Order, whose address is
317 West Blaine Street, Seattle; in reply she has very obligingly given us the
following letter:
"The Daughters of the
Nile is an institution composed of Shriners' wives, daughters, mothers, sisters
and widows, and is one of the loftiest institutions in the world today, composed
strictly of women. Masonry was screened of its best, giving the purest and
noblest ideals, to which womankind could subscribe and abide by. We have at the
present time temples scattered throughout the United States, also Canada, and
very soon a temple will be organized in the Phillipines. The present temples are
Hatasu No. 1, Seattle; Tirzah, No. 2, Butte, Montana; Miriam, No. 3, Victoria,
B.C.; Nydia, No. 4, Portland, Oregon; Zora, No. 5, Tacoma, Washington; El Karnak,
No. 6, Spokane; Lotus, No. 7, Duluth, Minnesota; Zenobia, No. 8, Chicago,
IIIinois; Zuleika, No. 9, Binghampton, New York; Pyramid, No. 10, Davenport,
Iowa; Netiken, No. 11, Des Moines, Iowa; Mokattum No. 12, Los Angeles,
California; Zuleima, No. 13, Ashland Oregon.
"These temples can
only be organized where a Shrine Temple exists, and they are known as Hatasu
Temple No. 1, Daughters of the Nile, and the Daughters of the Nile is added to
each of the above names I have quoted, just as we would say, 'Nile Temple,
A.A.O.N.M.S.' We elect our members to membership before we invite, - in other
words, membership cannot be solicited, and in this way we keep our membership to
the highest standard of womankind. I might add at this time that it was my
privilege and pleasure this last May to initiate Mrs. Warren G. Harding, the
wife of the President, into the order of The Daughters of the Nile. She favors
the organization very much, and is proud to be classed as a member. I might
further add that the membership throughout the nation is equally exclusive and
any community is benefitted by this organization I would be very glad to give
you further information.
"I enclose a copy of
one of my addresses made a few years past, that will give you perhaps a more
full idea of its purpose and aim, and I would add that this organization is
composed of the best women on earth, regardless of their high standing before
they come into the order: the standard of ideals taught are so high that our new
initiates will at once become bigger, better and broader women. I cannot say too
much in favor of the institution, and recommend it to all worthy women, and urge
the organization of a temple in every eligible district to give our best women
the opportunity and advantage of such an organization. Edith E. Grattis,
Washington."
* * *
CONCERNING THE HUGUENOTS
Can you give me the
title of a good history of the Huguenots? My ancestors for several generations
belonged to that blood and faith. Have any of them ever figured in Freemasonry?
A.W.B., California.
"The Rise of the
Huguenots," in two volumes, by H. M. Baird, published by Scribner's in 1883, is
generally accepted as the history on the subject. You can find it in almost any
public library. "French Blood in America," by Lucian J. Fosdick, and published
by Fleming H. Revell Co., is also very good; it contains a chapter on the
Huguenots and Freemasonry. Yes, they have figured much in the forefront of
Freemasonry, as you will learn from the chapter just mentioned. Paul Revere was
a Huguenot.
* * *
A LIST OF MASONIC TOPICS
I should like to "read
up" on Freemasonry but I find it difficult to find out the various subjects. Can
you furnish me with a list of Masonic topics? L.J.P., Idaho.
This is a very
incomplete list, drawn up at random, and offered as being merely suggestive. The
best way to get a line on the topics of Masonic study is to run through the
pages of some good Masonic Encyclopedia and note the headings, Primitive Secret
Societies, The Men's House, The Ancient Mysteries, Isis and Osiris, Mithraism,
Magna Mater, Eleusinian Mysteries, King Solomon's Temple, Dionysian Artificers,
King Hiram of Tyre, The Roman Collegia, The Comacini, The Cathedral Builders,
Craft Guilds, Operative Masonry, Non-Operative Masonry, Speculative Masonry,
Decline of Operative Masonry, Occultism, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalism,
The Old Charges, The Knights Templar, The Revival of Masonry, The Modern Grand
Lodge, The Ancient Grand Lodge, The Grand Lodge of All England, Military Lodges,
The Union of 1813, Negro Masonry, The Founding of Masonry in Various Countries,
Steinmetzen, Compagnonnage, The Druids, The Culdees, Symbolism, Ritualism,
Divergencies of Ritual, Degrees Theory, Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master
Mason, The Assembly, Theory of Grand Lodges, The Apron, The Three Great Lights,
The Three Lesser Lights, The Square and Compasses, Circumambulation, The Letter
"G", The Lost Word, The Middle Chamber, The Orders of Architecture, Approaching
the East, The Lion's Paw, Working Tools, Obligation, Qualifications, Hiram Abiff,
The Raising, Preparation, All-seeing Eye, Tetragrammaton, Masonic Jurisprudence,
The Theories of Jurisdiction, Masonic Criminal Procedure, Prerogatives of
Masonic Officials, Philosophy of Masonry, Equality, Liberty, Fraternity, Masonic
Ethics, Immortality, Democracy, Christopher Wren, Ashmole, Dugdale, James
Anderson, Dr. Desaguliers, Laurence Dermott, William Preston, Dr Geo. Oliver,
Wm. Hutchinson, Thos. Smith Webb, Jeremy Cross, Albert Pike, Theo. Sutton Parvin,
Masonic Music. Masonic Poetry, Masonic Journalism, Masonic Oratory.
----o----
CORRESPONDENCE
"MASONlC LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS" ONCE MORE
You review of Brother
Dudley Wright's book, "Masonic Legends and Traditions," in the February number
of THE BUILDER interested me. I wonder if the readers of THE BUILDER would not
be interested to read a review of the same book that appeared in The Occult
Review and that was written by Brother A. E. Waite, who has had articles in THE
BUILDER. I am sending you the clipping and ask you to print it. The review was
published last October.
- M. J. Hingley, Illinois.:
BROTHER A. E. WAITE'S REVIEW
"By a process of
exhaustion, we have most of us reached the conclusion, or have accepted as a
working hypothesis, that the Hiramic Myth of Craft Masonry was first formulated
in the years which followed immediately the foundation of Grand Lodge in 1717.
It is not for such reason to be regarded a lying fable; on the contrary it is
comparable to Bacon's New Atlantis or Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, in the sense
that it is a morality, a tale possessed and permeated by an allegorical motive.
It belongs in this sense to symbolism, and is part as such of the speculative
Masonic system. It is neither of history nor tradition, and it has been
allocated to these in the past only by minds devoid of critical gifts. Insofar
as it is a myth with a meaning there is a broad sense in which it seems to have
been framed on the Ancient Mysteries, the death and resurrection of the god.
When the high grades developed there were some which emerged in the direct sense
from the central story of the Craft, but their makers knew nothing,
unfortunately, of the old mystery pageants and them were among those who took
the Hiramic Myth literally. There rose up in this manner a series of barren
grades, embodying further fables to extend the original story; but unlike this
they were stories without a meaning. There was no morality "veiled in allegory"
or "illustrated by symbols." In his account of Masonic Legends Brother Wright
has eschewed these things of imposition and vanity, which might have filled his
volume easily, and has had recourse to the curious storehouse of the Old English
Constitutions and to accessible rabbinical sources. To those who are not Masons
his collection is almost sure to be new, and perhaps as much may be said of the
rank and file in the Brotherhood. There are chapters on the Temple of Solomon in
lore and legend, on Solomonic traditions, On Hiram King of Tyre, Hiram Abiff and
even the Queen of Sheba, for whom a niche has been found - for better, for
worse, as
it may be - in Masonic archives. It should be understood that these things
belong to the lighter side and the accidents of a great subject, but they have
their place on its outskirts, and they are left here to produce their own
impression, without discussion of their value. There are a few which have an
aspect of importance which will appeal only to students as they connect with the
Secret Tradition imported by Freemasonry from old antecedent sources."
Many thanks, Brother
Hingley, for calling our attention to so interesting a review of an excellent
little book. Meanwhile our readers will care to know that The Occult Review is a
monthly journal devoted to the occult and to the esoteric that is published by
William Rider and Sons, Cathedral House, Paternoster Row, E. C., London,
England, and is edited by Ralph Shirley. It is the leading English journal of
its genre.
ON THINGS IN GENERAL
Being a Fraternal
Forum in miniature as carried on through the mails among Brother David E. W.
Williamson, Brother R. J. Lemert, and H. L. Haywood, the last named acting as
chairman. It is herewith presented in dialog form - or should one say triolog? -
and published for the good of the Order. If any brother wishes to put in a word
on the matters discussed in this melange let him not hesitate to do so; he will
find himself in good company.
EXCAVATIONS ON THE TEMPLE SITE AT JERUSALEM
D.E.W.W. - Just a
line. In THE BUILDER it was stated I think in the last number, that nothing had
been done about excavations on the Temple site at Jerusalem. This is wholly
correct and it might have been added that there is little prospect of anything
being done, owing to the certainty that the first move would call forth a howl
from all faiths and sects. But I notice in the Quarterly Statement of the
Palestine Exploration Fund for October (London, just at hand) that Professor
Sayce, in the Expository Times for August, has an article on the Temple Mount.
This publication is a new one to me. I shall try to get it through Stetcher, New
York. The Quarterly Statement merely prints two lines that Sayce has such an
article in such a publication.
H. L. H. - Brother
Haydon has sent in a clipping from Adventure, I don't recall what issue, to the
effect that an Austrian - named Grim as I recall it - did, more or less
surreptitiously, do some excavating. The story sounds more or less apocryphal -
more rather than less - but I shall wait to learn about the matter in detail
with some interest. As to Sayce, he is a bit persona non grata with me. Years
ago I purchased a volume of his that determined me to purchase no more. He is
warped by theological presuppositions, it appeared to me, and reminded me of the
saying of Ole John Burroughs about Henry Drummond, that Drummond "tried to prove
that God is a Presbyterian." But if Sayce has written anything on the subject I
shall be glad to see it. He is formidable if not convincing.
AN IDEAL MASONIC HISTORY
(H.L.H. wrote to R.J.L.
and to D.E.W.W. to ask them their opinions about what a Masonic History should
be, in order that he might have the advantage of their advice on his own venture
in that line.)
R.J.L. - You ask me a
question that I've been asking myself for years - my ideal of a Masonic History.
Heaven knows! I've been wanting to write one, too, for a long while; and I have
made two or three starts, only to chuck the whole thing up in disgust each time.
I have pretty nearly everything that has been written, I think, and it is almost
impossible to prepare a work that is worth printing without threshing over old
straw. Still, I am not in the least satisfied with any of the histories on the
market. Even Newton couldn't keep a
lot of questionable stuff out - stuff that is wholly unjustified. There are some
excellent points about the works of Vibert, Armitage and McBride.
I have an idea,
however, that I propose to develop one of these days - a book to be entitled,
probably, "Essentials of Masonic History." In fact, I have a lot of the
manuscript licked into condition now - a holdover of a time some four years ago
when I had some time hanging heavily upon me. It will be a sort of amplification
of the theory laid down in my "Ancestors" - a series of thumb-nail sketches of
each of the various elements which in my opinion have contributed to the making
of modern Masonry: a short chapter, for instance, in prehistoric building,
particularly of sacred and public structures, in the different lands; a
statement of the facts, so far as ascertainable, regarding the various Mystery
systems, with a supplementary statement of the deductions that may reasonably
flow from the known facts; the same thing as regards the Dionysian Artificers
and the Essenes and the Culdees and the School of Alexandria, and the various
Pythagorean and Platonian schools of thought, and the Collegia and the Magistri
Comacini, and the ancient vestiges of building art and traditions in Britain and
on the Continent; the Johannites and the Manicheans and the Vaudois; the
Templars and what they may have picked up in the south; the Rosicrucians, the
Alchemists, the Troubadours, the old Theosophists and mystics and the Hermetists
and all that sort of thing. lt will be a sort of scrapbook, I suspect, but I'll
try to clear up a lot of misconceptions, poke around in a lot of dark corners,
give a lot of cold facts, and label any of my own or others' speculations for
exactly what they are.
It may not appeal to
any vast number of people, but I'll have a lot of fun doing it, and I'll drag
out in the open a lot of stuff that isn't available to the ordinary reader thus
far.
I wish to goodness
that some chap would find it possible to dig down into the facts surrounding the
condition of the Craft at and before the formation of the Grand Lodge of London
in 1717. I am absolutely convinced, in my own mind, that that whole transaction
was a colossal fraud, although I can't get quite through my head the peculiar
variety of hypnosis by which Anderson and his colleagues put the thing over. I'd
bet the best goosenest I ever saw that the Third Degree was known and was being
worked long, long before 1717; and then I'd gamble my reversion in the aforesaid
goosenest that it wasn't known to the Grand Lodge of London some years
afterward. I have the strongest sort of hunch that the "Ancients" were pretty
much on the square, and that that bunch were in more or less legitimate
possession of a much richer Masonry, from the ritualistic standpoint, at least,
than Anderson's people, and that it probably came from Ireland. The problem of
Stuart Masonry has always intrigued me (pardon me, but I like to use that word
at least once in each letter; it's so delightfully mouthfilling), and I don't
mind saying that I have a good deal of admiration for our ancient and querulous
friend, John Yarker - peace to his ashes - even if he was an arrant old rebel.
I have an idea that
the Irish lodges - and maybe some on western English soil, as at Bristol, for
instance - worked the Third much as we do; and that the Anderson lodges, when
they finally got the dope on that work, merely illustrated it, much as the
Emulation and similar workings do today. There can't be much doubt that French
Masonry sprang from the Grand Lodge of London, although I think there was
Masonry in France of the Irish variety in 1688 and from that time on until the
rise of the Emperors of the East and West and the other elements which later
fused into the Rite of Perfection. But this, the Stuart Masonry, was apparently
kept in the background, the popular variety being that fathered by Anderson and
his friends. Now I have a number of exposes printed in France from 1746 on.
Clearly they were of the dominant Masonry, or the English Masonry; and a most
significant thing is that the Third Degree, which is described most fully, and
rather elaborately pictured, does not work the tragedy, but merely exemplifies
it, a la Emulation et al.
(The design that R.J.L.
laid out upon the trestle board made H.L.H. feel rather humble. "Who is equal to
such things ? " To his humbleness was added despair when he received from
D.E.W.W. his specifications.)
D.E.W.W. - I am not
competent, I fear, even to offer a suggestion at to what a short history of
Freemasonry should include. It seems to me, though, that it ought not to be
controversial, as all Gould's writings are. What the inquiring Freemason wants
to know is first whence he came and why from such a lodge. That, it seems,
should be answered with a concise statement of, first the organizing of
Freemasonry in London and environs between 1717 and 1723 under a Grand Lodge,
secondly the existence of Freemasonry in Scotland as shown by historical records
and in Ireland by assumption from that speech at Trinity college quoted in
Gould, as well as at York and other cities in England outside of the
jurisdiction of the London Grand Lodge. This Masonry outside of London was
organized into Grand Lodges - Ireland, I believe, in 1725; Scotland in 1736 and
York about the same time or earlier, as well as a Grand Lodge under the Scottish
constitution in London. Mention of Masonry outside of London would include the
Ashmole references, the Randell Holme writings, the Tattler quotations and the
statement about Christopher Wren. In this way of starting you would follow the
Aristotelian rule of plunging at once into the midst of things. Possible
derivations might be considered as your second chapter or even be placed in ah
appendix - referring to the Comacines, the Cathedral Builders, the Essenes, the
Ancient Mysteries, the Mithraic cult, the Druses, the Knightly Templar, the
Culdees, the Kabbala. America deserves a better and broader consideration at the
hands of historians than she has yet received and Freemasonry in the United
States, if I may offer this advice, should be given credit for existence as
early as most of the "time immemorial" lodges in England, if not in Ireland.
We know that Franklin
was raised up in some lodge - whence did it draw its authority? The same way
with the lodge in which Washington was raised. These lodges existed without a
doubt and, if they were "working" it is reasonable to believe that others were
doing the same thing. To get at a broader understanding of Freemasonry and its
scope in the first half of the eighteenth century may not be so difficult after
all, as I think there are good histories of the Craft in Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts, possibly also in Virginia, from which it might be possible to
extract much information. As far as New York is concerned, if the history
written by Brother Ossian Lang and published last year in the Masonic Standard
is a fair account of all that is available there, it is not encouraging, but I
fear Brother Lang has not achieved all that is possible. Reading the little he
was able to give us it seems to me that no practical newspaper writer could fail
to see the strong, dramatic possibilities of the story that could be written on
the documents that plainly were in the hands of Brother Lang.
Freemasonry in the
Colonies as the War of the Revolution affected it can only be glimpsed, but from
the time of what might be called the reorganization of the Grand Lodges you
would have a clear field if through the members of the National Masonic Research
Society, whose services could be made available in the different jurisdictions,
you would get a narrative of the work in those jurisdictions. The summarizing
would be some job, I'll concede, but it would produce in concise, easily
comprehended form a credible history - something we lack now. Through a Montana
brother some time ago I obtained the loan of a book on the work of Freemasonry
and the Chapter, written by a person who gave the name of Malcolm Duncan,
probably a pseudonym - if not, it should be. In the back part of this expose (I
read every one of them I can get hold of and have been promised the loan of some
from France) is an account of the spread of the ritual in the United States,
alleged to have been taken from an address by a Grand Master of Vermont. I am
sorry I have not the book at this moment, or I would copy this for you, but any
second-hand store in Los Angeles has the Duncan book for sale and the Society
headquarters at Anamosa undoubtedly possesses a copy. It is said to be as common
and widely circulated as the Jabez Richardson work. However, the inquiring
newly-made Mason wants to know about the ritual and he should be told something
reasonable, and he might at least be told that, since the present "work" in
England was adopted as a compromise between the Ancients and the Moderns in 1813
(and that there are three versions there, as you pointed out in the last number
of THE BUILDER - Emulation, Stability and Oxford), the stamp of greater
antiquity certainly rests upon the "work" closely followed with slight
differences in American jurisdictions. He might be told that Pennsylvania is sui
generis and is close to the present English work, that Massachusetts is probably
as close to the original Webb work as any Grand Lodge but that New York insists
on being closer, while Virginia and Louisiana each pretends to trace direct to
the fountain head, but that those who really know declare that Illinois and
Indiana, Michigan and the Middle West are the real thing. And our Californian
brothers should consider themselves lucky if let of without mention, because
they got their original standard from four different jurisdictions and it is
only some fifteen years since they failed to improve it by rearranging it
altogether. For instance, basing their statement on what is universally admitted
to have been a misdrawing in the original Jeremy Cross chart, they tell the
newly obligated Master Mason that a Master Mason should wear his apron with the
right corner turned up but they go on to explain that it isn't done, you know.
I'm not saying much about Nevada. We use the New York standard
Just how much space to
devote to the Compagnonnage de la Tour de France I do not know. Since you
mentioned tracing Gould on one topic to a source that proved untrustworthy or at
least unworthy of serious consideration, I have been thinking that perhaps Gould
has given too much weight to Perdiguer's account. It is virtually all we have
and none of the manuscripts spoken of by Perdiguer has ever been traced in the
eighty years since the book was published. But the Compagnonnage, of course,
ought to be mentioned somewhere in your second chapter or as an appendix,
itself. In my belief that we shall find someday the origin of the legend in the
monasteries, I have depended much on this Compagnonnage story, but candidly I'm
beginning to be rather skeptical.
If A. E. Waite were
not such a terribly involved and tedious writer, one could read his volume on
"The Secret Tradition" and get a very fair idea of the origin of what we in this
country call the York Rite as well as the Scottish Rite and the various other
existing versions of the work. But it
is out of the question. Every young
Mason is early given to understand that the "higher" degrees offer a rich
reward. Hence, a short Masonic history ought to tell something about the Royal
Arch and its attachments, the Cryptic rites, the Knights Templar on the one
hand, and the Scottish Rite, with its wide influence, on the other. Every
published book on the Chapter in the United States is definitely and
unquestionably wrong in assuming that the Royal Arch was ever a part of the
Third Degree, according to the investigations on this subject published by the
Quatuor Coronati Lodge. As for the Templars, the only reasonable account of
them, so far as Masonry is concerned, was published in the same lodge's
publications in 1913, by Chetwood Crawley.
And, as to the
Scottish Rite, something should be said about the refusal of English, Scotch,
Irish and many American Grand Lodges to recognize the Grand-Orient of France.
The Mason should be told why.
Profuse illustrations
would spoil your book. Five or six at most ought to be enough and they should
avoid the rut that we have got into in the United States in all the Macoy
publications - a picture of George Washington, one of Lafayette, Washington's
apron, General Warren, occasionally one of Benjamin Franklin. These are about
worn out. A live group of eminent Past Grand Masters of today would be far more
likely to catch the student's eye. (Excuse me if I speak dogmatically - it’s a
daily habit of me in my work.)
THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE
(In a letter of some
weeks back D.E.W.W. had urged the theory that our Third Degree drama had
probably sprung from some of the old monastic ceremonies. When asked by H.L.H.
to amplify the idea he sent the following.)
Well, let me take up
as briefly as I can "The Case for the Monasteries." The diegesis of the
Halliwell, or Regius, manuscript and the Cooke manuscript believed by all
editors to have been written by some learned monk - mannerisms those of
monasteries, as seen in Ranulf's "Polychronicon." Indications of these oldest
manuscripts of Masonry are that they were composed for the edification or
instruction of a lodge of Masons at work on the monastery, abbey or church at
the time. The legend of the Third Degree is common to English, Irish and
Scottish Masons and is found, in slightly altered form, in the Compagnonnage.
Gould says the Compagnonnage derives the story from "The same sources of origin
as our own Freemasonry." What were those sources? Except the church, the people
of England and France in the Middle Ages had nothing in common. It was the
center of social life as well as the repository of what learning existed. There
was no education among the people in general, as we understand the term and
there was little or no travel. Such travelers as there were had no place to go
except to the monasteries for food and lodging and the travelers, we know, were
welcomed by the monks to whom they told the news of the day and with whom they
exchanged gossip and the latest songs and stories. Those who traveled from place
to place were principally the masons and builders and thus they had
access to the learning and
literature of the most widely disseminated fraternity ever known - the
fraternity of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the Masons of England and those
of France both had a legend dealing with Hiram, the artifices it is a fair
assumption that they obtained it from the one common source - to-wit: the
church.
There may be some
significance to the fact the Compagnonnage connects the town of Arles with the
legend and this Arles of Provence was a famous center of religious dramas and it
has more than once occurred to me that our ancient charges with their mention of
such names as "Tuball" and "Noe" and "Euclid" and so forth and the general
spirit of the "history" were written by some monk - the only person who could
write at all at that period - who had before him, as he composed the lecture, a
mental picture of one of those pageants for which the Middle Ages were famous.
Then you may have observed that these charges were first printed as "The Old
Constitutions." Now where did they get that plural form of Constitution? I have
never seen it referred to anywhere, but it has occurred to me that the Diatagai
were first published as "Apostolic Constitutions" by the Jesuit Turrianus in
1563 and we are told by the Encyclopedia Brittanica (eleventh edition, vol. ii,
page 199) that this spurious work was "more highly esteemed in England than
elsewhere." Just a bit of evidence of no particular importance by itself but
helping in connection with the other facts in the cumulative effect. Then the
late E.L. Hawkins (Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1913) drew
attention to the fact that in the old charges the certain direction "Tunc unus
ex senioribus teneat librum" etc., is always in Latin. It seems to me that this
is a clincher, though Hawkins did not see it, for here we have a clear case of
the church practice of printing the rubric in Latin.
I have simply
summarized this and have written it in the shape of notes because it is by no
means complete. There is much to be investigated before a decisive judgment can
be reached. But I think the case as it stands is sufficiently strong to warrant
following up. Do you ? And I think I told you about Brother Robert Clegg's
referring me to volume four of Gould's history, to the picture copied from the
Illustrated London News of 1870 showing the ordination of a Benedictine monk. (I
have been wholly unable to get the Roman ritual of ordination of priest or monk.
Could you suggest where I could get one?) I know I wrote to you or was going to
write that there are faint resemblances (very faint, but they are there) in the
Book of Common Prayer to the questioning of a candidate.
OCCULTISM AND FREEMASONRY
(R.J.L. is something
of a browser in occultism, especially insofar as it has to do with Freemasonry.
H.L.H. asked him to write something on the subject for THE BUILDER.)
I'm getting material
together for the series on occultism which you are so kind as to say you think
you can use, and hope to get at it one of these days. One of my late purchases
from France, Pierre Piobb's "Evolution de l'Ocultisme," gives me some excellent
ideas, which I propose to work in whenever the time comes. I was somewhat
astonished to learn from Piobb that the word "Occultisme," the prototype of our
own word, I assume, is of recent coinage, having been first applied by Papus
(Dr. Encausse) in 1888. By the way, speaking of words, I observe that the
barbarism "Hermeticism" now and then appears in THE BUILDER.
H.L.H. - What's wrong
with "Hermeticism"? I find it used in the Ars Quatuor Coronati? Isn't that good
enough for you ?
R.J.L. - Why, my
objection to it is that its formation is faulty. Your root word is, of course,
"Hermes"; hence and ergo, Hermes-ic - Hermetic for the sake of euphony. Also,
Hermes-ism - Hermetism, for the same reason. The root of the latter word
is not "Hermetic," but "Hermes."
True, one
is occasionally forced to coin a
word to express a burgeoning thought; but even in such case it is well to
consider some rules. And neither rule nor rhyme nor reason justifies "Hermeticism"
as you will appreciate if you just think a moment. It may be that some of the
dictionaries carry the word of which I complain, but I doubt it.
Of course, in
employing such a word one has the weight of authority of Humpty Dumpty, cited in
that standard work, "Alice in Wonderland," in which when reproved by Alice for a
solecism, he defends himself by saying (I paraphrase from ancient memory):
"Words are my servants,not my masters; and I require them to mean whatever I
will that they shall mean."
One occasionally finds
weird and wonderful words in English and Scottish publications. I have before me
as I write the latest Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, containing an
auditor's report, in which the accountant remarks sweetly, ong passong, "the
income effeiring to Grand Lodge . . . from dues of Intrants," etc. And yet I
fear I shall never be justified in employing these two gladsome accessions to my
vocabulary, dearly as I might desire it, in one of my reports. I can imagine
some keen lawyer quizzing me about them on the witness stand.
THE TRIVIUM AND THE QUADRIVIUM
(D.E.W.W. said
something in a letter to R.J.L. about the "trivium and the quadrivium." H.L.H.
has stolen R.J.L.'s reply.)
I dug into this "seven
liberal arts and sciences" matter some years ago, and there a few things which
persist in my memory which may be of some use to you.
Both the trivium and
the quadrivium formed the basis of the instruction in the old University of
Athens, the School of Alexandria, and that university at Rome which began to be
called the Athenaeum in Hadrian's day, about A. D. 120.
Possibly before, and
certainly from the time of Isocrates (436-338 B.C.) and under the influences of
Speusippus (407-339 B. C.) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) human knowledge was
summarized under seven heads - grammar, rhetoric and dialectics, later known as
the trivium; and music, astronomy, geometry and arithmetic, the quadrivium, just
as friend Pafnutius observes.
My notes - such as I
have been able to lay my hand on tonight - tell me that these designations were
first employed about the end of the fourth century. It is quite certain the
terms applied to these branches of knowledge were elastic, sometimes
comprehending two or three things, sometimes half a dozen. In the
Romano-Hellenic schools dialectic embraced logic, ethics and metaphysics, but
with Quintillian only logic and ethics.
I think our
classification into seven liberal arts and sciences is extremely old. I have
Matter's "Ecole d'Alexandrie" on my shelves, and it is my impression that
there's quite a bit of data in it; but there are three laborious volumes,
unindexed, more's the pity.
By the way, of course
you know that at least in the Middle Ages the quadrivium group was regarded as
wholly mathematical, even to music; the trivium was the literary group.
THE POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE
(R.J.L. delivered
himself of an opinion as to the origin of the Point Within the Circle that is
interesting,"intriguing," as the young lions of The New Republic would say.)
I have an idea
regarding the Point Within the Circle that I hope to develop to somewhere near
my satisfaction one of these days - and there's no phallicism in the guess I'm
making either. I have a rather huge collection of ancient coins, and among them
possibly a dozen old Athenian tetradrachms running from 600 or more B. C. down
several hundred years. All bear, in semiarchaic Greek characters, the
abbreviation of the name of the city - AOE. You will observe that the "theta" is
not made as we now make it, an O with a bar across an ellipse, but it is a true
circle with a dot in its center.
I haven't dug into the
origin of the Greek alphabet as much as I have into some of the others - Hebrew
and Phoenician, for example. But theoretically the ancient Hebrew "aleph" was a
hieroglyphical representation of the head of an ox, and the Phoenecian aleph is
easily recognizable as such a drawing. "Aleph" means ox or bullock. "Beth" is a
house or a tent, and the character was originally a drawing of part of a house.
"Cimel" is "camel," and once more a hieroglyph. When the Phoenician alphabet was
first formed the writers selected common words beginning with the sound they
wanted to represent, and then drew a rough picture of that object, which later
became conventionalized. We all know that, so please don't think that I imagine
I'm playing the schoolmaster; I'm merely thinking on paper.
When the Greeks
adopted their alphabet, they borrowed largely from their elders as to many of
their characters. In some cases they didn't. One of their words for the Supreme
Being was,and is,"theos," as we know. Was there once a time, in a proto-Greek
tongue, when it was "theta" ? The words are tremendously alike. If so, or if the
character "theta" was originally called "theos," or if, as a third possibility,
reverence for a sacred name or superstitious fear led them to adopt a
modification, a sort of diminutive, and to call the God "theos" in sacred
ceremonies, but "theta" in ordinary conversation, and if they followed the
time-honored custom of adopting an hieroglyph like the Hebrews and the
Phoenicians, it is clear that the Point Within a Circle must have been a
conventional representation of Deity when the alphabet was formed.
I never have believed
much in many of the derivations to which some writers are so firmly wedded -
phallicism, sun worship, stellar cults, and all that sort of thing. Relatively,
phallicism is a late development - that is, in the old Aryan religions it was
unknown, practically. Long ages ago there was a cult of life - and a very noble
and lofty thing it was, coordinate with the worship of the male principle in
nature. Later the female principle was introduced by a rebellious party, who
sought a slogan, as we would call it today, to gain adherents. And to get
something "catchy," something that would gain the adhesion of the masses, the
bolsheviki, they substituted the female principle, and female gods - or
goddesses - for the old male gods. And then - the usual result when the male and
female principles are juxtaposed.
I'm inclined to
believe that the Point Within a Circle was originally exactly the same thing as
the All-seeing Eye, and that as a symbol of Deity it is to be found on some of
the very oldest monuments. Of course, we know that it was the Ra symbol on the
Egyptian monuments, meaning not only God, but the sun; but here again I can't
believe the sun was regarded as a deity, but merely as the visible manifestation
of Deity - once more an eye.
Some of the Vedic
quotations in Ragozin's "Vedic India" demonstrate quite clearly how the Aryans
regarded the sun - merely as the manifestations of Deity, and not as Deity
himself.
I know quite well that
most of what I've written is trite to you, but as I said on the earlier page,
I've been merely thinking on paper.
Have you ever read
Dupuis' "Origine de Tous les Cultes"? I have the original work, in ten or twelve
volumes, and also a later abridgement. But Dupuis saw sun worship in everything.
H.L.H. - One could say
much about your "theta" theory, "for and ferninst." You know that the alchemists
used the Point Within the Circle as a sign for the sun, and for such things as
they associated with that luminary, gold for example (see Campbell Brown's
History of Chemistry): since alchemy goes so far back, since it was so prevalent
during the Middle Ages, and since so many of its signs - as witness a doctor's
signature to his prescriptions - have remained in use, I am inclined to believe
that the symbol came thence, and that it has generally meant the sun, and by
analogy, Deity.
(From the sublime to
the ridiculous. H.L.H. enclosed his "phiz" in a letter to R.J.L. with the
following results.)
And also thank you for
the likeness. You're a younger man than I would have expected. Don't fret about
the lack of gray hairs. You'll get them if you keep up the writing game. I put
in about 25 or 30 years of my sweet young life in newspaper work, and I'm mighty
nearly snow white - and just a kid yet - only 55 next month. It's a deep pity
that you didn't wait about three weeks before being born, so you could have seen
the light under the auspices of Sagittarius. Then you'd have taken to occultism
like a duck to water. Of course, no Scorpio individual could be expected to like
it.
back to top |
